Virginia Organizing says Eric Cantor breaks promises at home and in Philly

LADELLE MCWHORTER, VIRGINIA ORGANIZING BOARD MEMBER

I am a board member of Virginia Organizing, a statewide, nonpartisan grassroots organization that works on social and economic justice issues.

We have a lot of members who are concerned that Rep. Cantor is not representing the 7^th district or the state of Virginia well.

Lately it seems that Rep. Cantor has gone out of his way to embarrass Virginia to the rest of the nation and has become a lightning rod for good reason. He has obstructed the American Jobs Act. His unwillingness to negotiate helped lead to the Standard and Poors credit downgrade. And when natural disaster struck Joplin and his own district twice, he heartlessly announced that we must counter any disaster aid with spending cuts.

Recent earthquakes and hurricanes aside, many Virginians feel that Eric Cantor is the biggest recent disaster to hit Virginia.

Rep. Cantor’s cancellation of his Philadelphia income inequality speech is part of a pattern of behavior that indicates that he is not interested in hearing from the other 99 percent, or working on the one issue almost everyone cares about: jobs.

Rep. Cantor promised to work on jobs just like he promised to speak at the University of Pennsylvania last week. Well, Philadelphia has unfortunately learned what Virginia already knew: Eric Cantor has no problem breaking promises.

Virginia needs jobs and we need all of our representatives in Washington fighting for the unemployed. Virginia has fared better than other states like Pennsylvania, due to our high concentration of government and military jobs. But as massive cuts continue, we find our unemployment rate rising.

I am a professor at the University of Richmond, which is in the middle of Rep. Cantor’s district. There is no question that the number one priority of the graduating students and the community surrounding the university is jobs. Rep. Cantor represents some rural districts as well that have been hit hard by the economic downturn. Cantor’s constituents need a Jobs Champion in Washington, not a Jobs Obstructer.

Rep. Cantor has spent the last several weeks killing the American Jobs Act, which would create thousands of jobs in Virginia and 2.6 million jobs nationwide. Instead of working on jobs, Cantor is attacking the Occupy Wall Street protesters, restricting women's reproductive rights and working to deny disaster aid to his own district.

And instead of facing his constituents to explain why he is not fighting for jobs, he is scheduling speeches in Philadelphia only to cancel at the last minute because he is scared of the other 99 percent.

Virginia Organizing members traveled 300 miles to Philadelphia last Friday just to see their congressman. Representative Cantor rarely holds public meetings in his district and does not put out a public schedule. The closest thing Rep. Cantor has had to a recent town hall was an invite-only event on August 31, publicized only on the local tea party website. Hundreds of his constituents showed up anyway and were kept away by the police. It’s clear that Representative Cantor wants to keep his distance from the poor, middle class, unemployed and just about anyone else who doesn’t agree with him.

Rep. Cantor is much more comfortable surrounded by his wealthy donors and corporate CEOs. Well, in order to move our country forward, we might have to take Rep. Cantor out of his comfort zone for a moment, so that he can understand the struggles of the other 99 percent.

Our Eric Cantor Protest makes the Daily Show

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Eric Cantor tells Tea Party to "take to streets," but calls Occupiers a "mob"

Check out this great video from Jon Stewart about the hypocrisy of GOP leaders deriding people who are standing up for the 99%.

And join us on Friday, October 21 in Philadelphia to greet Eric Cantor. He's speaking on economic inequality in the United States, but he opposes anything that seriously addresses that issue.

Join us:
Tell Eric Cantor "We are America!"
Friday, October 21
3:30- 6:00 PM
Walnut and 38th Sts.
Philadelphia

As House Minority Whip Eric Cantor Raises Funds for Pat Meehan, Pennsylvanians Reject Cantor’s Ruinous Ideas

Does Pat Meehan Support Eric Cantor’s Plans to
Privatize Social Security and Replace Medicare with Vouchers?

You can tell a lot about someone’s values by the friends they keep, and Republican Pat Meehan is welcoming with open arms a Washington politician who couldn’t be less representative of Pennsylvania values. As House Minority Whip Eric Cantor has been tramping around the country, promoting his “Young Guns” book and raising money for candidates – Keystone Progress is calling on Meehan to come clean on if he endorses Cantor’s plans to ruin our retirement.

"Young Guns” trumpets Rep. Paul Ryan’s ‘Roadmap’ budget plan that would privatize Social Security and replace Medicare with a voucher system that shortchanges seniors on medical care. As the Minority Whip, Cantor along with his follow young guns, ranking Republican Member of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan and GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy, could one day be in a position to advance the Bush-era scheme to turn our guaranteed benefits over to their friends on Wall Street.

“Pat Meehan may appreciate the money Eric Cantor will be raking in for him tonight, but Pennsylvanians will be the ones left behind if Cantor and his buddies are able to enact their devastating agenda,” said Michael Morrill of Keystone Progress. Eric Cantor enabled the disastrous Bush economic policies that left so many Pennsylvanians without jobs, retirement savings and health care. And now the man who could help run the House of Representatives one day is in Pennsylvania to raise money for politicians he knows will help him go back to same exact policies that got us into this mess. Is this what Pat Meehan believes? It’s time for Meehan to say if he stands with Washington politicians or the people of Pennsylvania.”

***Click Here to View ‘Young Guns Reloaded’***

“Reps. Ryan, Cantor, McCarthy: Middle-aged conservatives recycling ideas
that were young … when they were.”

Washington Post’s Ezra Klein calls the ‘reforms’ detailed in Ryan’s budget proposal “nothing short of violent.” Indeed, according to an in-depth analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “[T]he Ryan plan would raise taxes for most middle-income families, privatize a substantial portion of Social Security, eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance, end traditional Medicare and most of Medicaid, and terminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The plan would replace these health programs with a system of vouchers whose value would erode over time and thus would purchase health insurance that would cover fewer health care services as the years went by.”