Leader Cantor Responds To President Obama's Jobs Speech on CBS, CNBC & Bloomberg
Statement
On Coming Together And Producing Results: "As the President said, people are really hurting out there. It's time for Washington to come together and produce results. It seemed that the President was delivering the message that Congress should take up and pass his jobs bill, all or nothing and if that didn't happen, he would seek to hold us accountable. I don't think that's the right approach. What we should do is go for the things in the package that we both can agree on. I did hear some things, like small business tax relief, reducing red tape, working to try and streamline the infrastructure spending in this country, and looking to reform the unemployment benefits program to get people back to work. These are the kinds of things that can produce results, help clean up the system, and we could do these right away. I'm hoping to peel some of these out of the package, to put them on the floor, to see what we can get done as soon as possible to produce results for the people who so desperately need to see Washington get back to work." CNBC
On Creating An Environment For Job Creation: "Republicans don't believe in raising taxes on anybody. We also know right now the imperative is growth, and anything that can provide incentives for entrepreneurs to put capital to work is what we would embrace. As far as the payroll tax holiday on the employee side, it was a provision in the agreement that passed last December, along with the extension of the existing marginal rates, capital gains rates, etcetera, it is something that certainly will be part of the discussions going forward. I think the priority should be getting people back to work and how we can create an environment for job creation." Bloomberg
On Providing Tax Relief For Small Businesses: "In the area of small business tax relief, we know and the President recognizes that it is the small businesses that are struggling the most. We also know that the small businesses are the job engines of our economy. They're the ones that we need so desperately to get back into the game. We need entrepreneurs to put capital to work again, and any incentive that we can provide these small businessmen and women through tax relief we should go ahead and do that as quickly as possible." CBS
On Streamlining Infrastructure Spending: "We agree that we ought to be looking at infrastructure spending. Our ideas on the table have to do with trying to fix the current system to free up states and give them flexibility with the monies they do have. We also know there's a significant portion of the stimulus package that has not been spent yet. If the monies that Congress put forward in the stimulus package have not been spent, something is wrong with the system. Our ideas are to try and streamline the system, and the permitting process to try and give some relief to the states, to give them flexibility to fulfill their mission and their needs. There's a lot of area for progress there before we go start spending hundreds of billions of dollars more. We have to be smart about it." CNBC
On Reforming Unemployment Benefits: "One of the things that we Republicans put forward back in December of 2009 was reforming the unemployment benefit program in this country, and specifically we pointed to the program in the state of Georgia called Georgia Works. The President mentioned that tonight, again that is an area of commonality, something that we should be able to get to work on right away, because we agree that it is important to reform the system so that the goal of getting people back to work is realized." Bloomberg
Source