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David Gregory writes: This past week saw President Obama experience an up-tick in his approval rating. On Tuesday, we can expect him to focus his State of the Union address on unity, the deficit and, of course, JOBS JOBS JOBS.
On Sunday, I sat down with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) to discuss just those big issues. Five days after House Republicans voted to repeal president Obama's "job killing" health care reform law, I asked Mr. Cantor where he believes the debate can go from here.
One issue where Republicans have really hunkered down on lately is government spending. I asked Mr. Cantor what programs he would like to cut in order to reach the $100 billion in the first year that Republicans committed to in their "Pledge to America." Like fellow GOPers who have been on the show recently, Cantor told me,
"Everything, David, is on the table." I pushed the leader of the self-proclaimed "cut and grow" majority for specifics on where he feels the government can be cut, and how his party plans to grow the economy. But with Cantor, specifics were hard to come by. I asked how he wanted to reform entitlement spending: Raise the retirement age? Means testing benefits? Cantor told me that Americans 55 and older will not see a change in Social Security benefits, but for those younger there needs to be "a serious discussion."
The biggest legislation to hit the floor during this 112th Congress has been the proposal to repeal President Obama's health care reform law. Without a majority in the Senate and a promised veto by the president, the bill was seen as largely symbolic by some.
When I asked Mr. Cantor about the repeal vote, he told me, "It was very much a policy-based vote," and that
Republicans have a serious alternative.
With all the attention that's been given to discourse in our politics, I wanted to ask Rep. Cantor for his take on some of the fringe elements of the Republican Party who question the citizenship of President Obama. I asked him to flatly denounce those claims as crazy talk. However, after a lively exchange, Cantor
would not call the claims illegitimate, but said it is not an issue that we should be addressing.
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Video: Cantor addresses talk of Obama's citizenship
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