Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) voted for over $120 billion to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, funds that were used to construct and repair schools, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure. Now, Cantor is opposing President Obama’s proposal to spend $30 billion to modernize 35,000 American schools.
With a title like “Why does Eric Cantor hate America?”, I can guarantee that some will immediately question my motives before they even consider the truth and facts behind the question. Questioning Cantor’s commitment to his country is not something I undertake lightly, but his record speaks for itself. How is it that a Congressman can vote for more than $120 billion to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan…but $30 billion designed to upgrade American schools is somehow beyond the pale and unacceptable? Then again, Cantor is the same insensitive, reflexive ideologue who opposed providing federal disaster relief (even as a hurricane was heading towards his own district) until and unless it was offset with spending cuts. This is why “Compassionate Conservatism” was, is, and will alway be the very definition of an oxymoron.
I can understand how and why Cantor might be married to the idea of deficit reduction. I get it; reducing the federal deficit would be a good thing. What ISN’T a good thing is displaying a predilection for rubber-stamping reconstruction funds for Iraq and Afghanistan while holding reconstruction at home to a much tougher standard. That money for Iraq and Afghanistan undoubtedly goes to contractors who will return some of that largesse to Republican campaign coffers almost goes without saying.
Being inflexibly wedded to the idea of deficit reduction first, last, and always is one thing. When this inflexibility robs a politician like Cantor of any sense of responsibility toward Americans (whose tax dollars he voted to send overseas), it’s beyond reprehensible. Clearly, he’s become so numb to the optics involved in authorizing reconstruction funds for Iraq and Afghanistan but not for America that he neither recognizes nor cares about the symbolism created by his obstreperousness.
Perhaps my mistake was in assuming that Eric Cantor has a heart. Or a soul.
