Cantor hopes Dems include GOP jobs measures

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Wednesday expressed hope that Democratic leaders will include several new Republican ideas for job creation in coming legislative initiatives.

Cantor later on Wednesday will make a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation to outline a set of “no-cost” alternative ideas on job creation.

Asked on a conference call with reporters if Republicans planned to introduce their own jobs bill, Cantor said “These are ideas we hope to incorporate [into current efforts].”

Cantor indicated it is unlikely that Republicans will introduce their own legislation because Democrats control both sides of the Capitol.

“It is they that control the flow of legislation,” he said of the Democrats, “They control the levers of power.”

Cantor has emerged as one of the leading Republican voices against the federal stimulus passed in February.  Republicans have argued that the stimulus has not done enough to create jobs, citing growing unemployment numbers and what they say are inaccurate stimulus jobs creation statistics.

Cantor’s speech comes a day before President Barack Obama is scheduled to hold a White House “jobs summit.”

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders in Congress have said they would introduce a new jobs bill in the coming weeks, but have been careful to distance the new measures from the first stimulus. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) last month said the new bill will not be a so-called “second stimulus” but will have a narrow focus on jobs creation.

Cantor said that Republican efforts will target existing provisions that target regulations and rules that “deter investments that create jobs” as well as tax and spending policies, commercial real estate, and state unemployment taxes.

He also laid out ideas that have been part of the Republican agenda for decade, such as spending cuts and opposition to tax hikes.
“[It is] premised on the notion that there are some common sense solutions that both sides can agree on that don't cost anything,” he said of the initiatives.

Of the jobs summit, Cantor said he hopes “it's more than a photo-op" because according to him, White House events have been to focused on “pomp and ceremony” without much “follow through.”
Before the call Democrats criticized Cantor for saying the first stimulus has been an “utter failure” that has not produced jobs.

Many Democrats have pointed to a recent CBO report that claims the stimulus has “saved or created” between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs as proof that it has had its intended effect on the economy.

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