Eric Cantor Reveals His Phoniness

What a way to ring in the New Year!

If you watched 60 Minutes Sunday evening, you treated yourself to a "Get to know the real Eric Cantor" propaganda interview conducted by Lesley Stahl. In it, Cantor wanted to show you his personal side, complete with the family portrait, faded photos of the young couple soon to be Mr. & Mrs. Cantor in love, and a few tidbits of information courtesy of Cantor's son. He likes rap music, like JayZ and Lil' Wayne. (...Yeah, right.)

What turned out to be a complete sabotage and revealed Cantor to be a fraud was when Stahl asked Cantor about compromising, just as his "hero" Ronald Reagan had to do on occasion.



Who else was just as shocked as I was when hearing Cantor's press secretary yelling from off camera to dispute the fact, THE FACT, that Ronald Reagan actually raised taxes during his presidency? He exposed Cantor for the fraud we all know he is on national television. Did he think that 60 Minutes would edit that section out of the piece?! An interview at Cantor's home with his wife at his side, and his press secretary hanging on every word and making sure they don't violate Lord Norquist. Even Weeper Boehner came across better in his 60 Minute interview.

Quote of the Day

“Instead of doing everything he can to help Virginians and people on the East Coast recover from the loss of life and property that Irene dealt over the weekend, Cantor is parading around on Fox News talking about how he will hold federal aid hostage unless he gets to slash the budget. Anyone willing to play political games while people are suffering is unfit to be a congressman.”

~David Mills, executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia.

Will Cantor Look for Cuts Elsewhere to Pay for His District Disaster?

Hey, remember what Eric Cantor said about federal disaster relief funds after Joplin, Missouri was practically destroyed by a tornado? Let me refresh your memory:

The No. 2 House Republican said that if Congress doles out additional money to assist in the aftermath of natural disasters across the country, the spending may need to be offset.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said “if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental."

That was way, way long ago... too far for the MSM to possibly remember. Three whole months ago.
Well, now that the epicenter of the east coast earthquake landed smack dab in the middle of his district in Mineral, Virginia, are we going to see him look for "pay-fors" to help offset the cost of federal relief?

[Cantor] said that a federal process is underway to assess the damage and address residents and businesses that may not have earthquake insurance.

Sorry, Sparky. Why should we shell out federal money to help people that weren't smart enough to carry earthquake insurance while living over a fault line? Oh yeah, that's right. Because we're fucking human beings who look out for our fellow man. And I'm completely fine with that. But why the hell does Cantor insist on Tea Party populist bullshit like this?

...Eric Cantor (R-VA) will extend his requirement that federal disaster relief be paid for by cutting spending elsewhere in the budget to Hurricane Irene.

“We aren’t going to speculate on damage before it happens, period,” his spokesperson Laena Fallon emails. “But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts.”

I called him a punk then and I'm calling him a punk now. The people of VA-7 must be so happy they voted for this douchebag to look out for their best interests, huh?

Who Are You Going To Believe?

Day 4 of the debt ceiling talks ended today, with differing acounts.

According to Luke Russert via Twitter:


So did Obama storm out? Who are you going to believe? The guy who's been at the table constantly looking for a deal or the guy who had already walked out of previous meetings and hasn't budged in his ideology?

UPDATE: Jake Tapper weighs in.

Republican Leadership! HUZZAH!

You gotta hand it to the so-called leaders of the Republican Party. If they don't get everything they want, they sure know how to take their ball and go home.

TPM: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has proposed creating an escape hatch for Congressional Republicans, who have put themselves in a box by threatening not to raise the national debt limit if Democrats don't agree to trillions of dollars in cuts to popular social programs.

Yes, after all the yelling and screaming that the debt ceiling sky is falling, and digging in their heels saying they wouldn't approve a raise in the debt ceiling unless substantial spending cuts were taken to offset the raise considering one cent in revenue increases unacceptable, all at the expense of US defaulting on its loans and a possible domino effect short circuiting the global economy - tantamount to blackmail, something they do so well - little Mitch McConnell is taking his ball and going home, dragging little Johnny Boehner by the hand with him.

JM Ashby over at Bob Cesca's blog does a great job summing up McConnell's toothless legislation proposal:

If the legislation proposed by McConnell is passed, President Obama can raise the national debt limit without a single cut to spending. Congress will then have the opportunity to pass a series of symbolic resolutions condemning the president for doing so. And in a worst case scenario, President Obama would have to propose entirely hypothetical and imaginary spending cuts he would make if it were up to him.

Considering how crafty and elusive the administration can be when it wants to, the threat of requiring phantom spending-cut proposals and the passage of ineffectual congressional resolutions condemning the debt ceiling seems completely impotent. What will stop the administration from including tax-hikes and long-term cuts to defense spending in every proposal? It’s all hypothetical!

All this in the name of protecting tax loopholes for the rich, continuing to subsidize big oil companies despite record breaking profits year after year, and helping corporations continue to avoid paying little to no federal income tax with offshore tax havens.

So let's review. House Speaker John Boehner and the GOP were adamant about not raising the debt ceiling at the risk of US default unless it included spending cuts equaling or exceeding the amount of the debt ceiling raise, particularly cuts in the form of popular social programs like Medicare and Social Security. The Republican Party was looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of a $2 trillion worth of spending cuts without any increase in revenue - even on the backs of the poor millionaires and billionaires' tax loopholes. President Obama called their bluff and said 'if you're actually serious about debt reduction, let's look at a $4 trillion cut. Let's look at Social Security and Medicare. But it's not going to come at the expense of the middle and working classes. Let's look at tax reform, loopholes, and having the top 2% actually pay what you think they're paying.'  Eric Cantor walked away from the table. Boehner blinked and walked away from the table. Mitch McConnell is now walking away from the table for political cover. And President Obama knows it.

President Obama did not walk away from the table or the American people when it came to defaulting on the US debts. It was the perfect move. And now with McConnell's proposal, President Obama, the only adult in the room, is getting what he wanted in the first place, a no strings attached debt ceiling increase.

ADDING... I have unsubscribed from several "progressive" organizations after receiving emails trashing President Obama for selling out the middle and working classes by putting "Social Security and Medicare cuts" on the table, something he NEVER said he'd do, and asking for donations in the process.

From the beginning of these negotiations, the "professional left" freak out has pissed me off to no end. Instead of attacking the party threatening to default on country's debt and using it as a hostage tool, their default position was to attack the President for trying to get a deal for ALL Americans. There is no longer any reason to consider these organizations the "base." Anyone thinking or suggesting that a primary challenge to President Obama is a good idea should in no way be considered, "the base." The base should be considered the base because they are the core support for the party leader. If you don't support the President more than 50% of the time (and that's being generous) you're not the base. If you don't support President Obama but still consider yourself the base, do yourself a favor and don't come back here. You won't like what you read. Or come back and make your points in the comments section. The real "base" welcomes the debate.

Quote of the Day

Republicans have a very different idea about the nature of the process. They see an alternative trade-off — the GOP will accept spending cuts, and in exchange, they won’t deliberately destroy the economy.

Dems are willing to accept concessions to strike a deal. Republicans are willing to not shoot their hostage in the head in exchange for Dems giving the GOP what it wants.

The former is an example of a party negotiating in good faith. The latter is an example of reckless thugs pretending to be a political party.

~ Steve Benen

Needless to say, he's exactly right about this. And this mindset has permeated the GOP psyche to the point that Republican Majority House Whip Eric Cantor insists on withholding financial assistance to tornado ravaged Joplin, Missouri unless there are spending cuts somewhere else.

What would the right have screeched if a Democratic member of Congress insisted on withholding funds to New Orleans in the shadow of Hurricane Katrina because it jibes with his ideology with no compassion for those involved? You know, a George W. Bush type fly-over.

Eric Cantor Is a Punk

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), however, said that before Congress approved federal funds for disaster relief, it had to offset the spending with cuts to other programs. The Washington Times reports:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday that if Congress passes an emergency spending bill to help Missouri’s tornado victims, the extra money will have to be cut from somewhere else.

“If there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental,” Mr. Cantor, Virginia Republican, told reporters at the Capitol. The term “pay-fors” is used by lawmakers to signal cuts or tax increases used to pay for new spending.Republican House Majority Whip Eric Cantor doesn't believe we should help Joplin and its tornado victims unless we cut somewhere else.

What a fucking lowlife. Everything is a hostage negotiation with these goddamned Republicans. I hope everyone in Missouri is listening to this moron and remembers it come election time. One wonders if he'd be saying the same thing if his Virginia district got hit with a natural disaster.

Well Whaddaya Know!

Obama's Long Form Birth Certificate Revealed!

Everyone has a breaking point, and President Obama finally reached his, when it came to the Birther bullshit anyway.

Responding to critics' relentless claims, President Barack Obama on Wednesday produced a detailed Hawaii birth certificate in an extraordinary attempt to bury the issue of where he was born and confirm his legitimacy to hold office. He declared, "We do not have time for this kind of silliness.

..."I am confident that the American people and America's political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have. But we're not going to be able to do it if we are distracted."

..."This issue has been going on for two, two and a half years now. I think it started during the campaign," Obama said. "I have watched with bemusement, I've been puzzled at the degree at which this thing just kept on going."

"We're not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers," the president said.

And yes, you can be sure that the "carnival barker" dig was aimed at Donald Trump.

Now we can all sit back with confidence and know that the "Birther conspiracy" story will die off in favor of the "Obama Long Form Birth Certificate is a Forgery" stories which have already surfaced, complete with a fully complicit mainstream media.

And ultimately, while I understand the premise of the White House's decision to release a long form birth certificate, they had to know that this story would only stoke the flames in the forgery department. So really, how have they tamped down the distraction?

Oh, and a big "FUCK YOU" to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Fuckwadistan) who was surprised that the White House took this route and shocked that they would actually try to appease the fucking crazies in his own goddamned party after three years of loony bin talk. Please point to the story where Cantor said Trump was being a douche with the birther nonsense.

You can add Trump and Sarah Palin to the "Fuck You" list as well; Trump for taking credit after race-baiting and dog-whistling for what felt like months and Palin for tweeting that the media not be distracted with this story and concentrate on Ben Bernanke's news conference today, when she had no problem stirring the drink with the Trump straw.

Oh, and how can I forget Weeper of the House John Boehner for calling this a "long settle issue"? Wish he had said something even remotely similar when asked about it on Meet The Press. While he believes Obama, it "wasn't his job" to call out the birther fruitcakes in his own party. That's leadership, huh?

So now we can all finally enjoy Donald "Take The Oil" Trump talk about important things like foreign policy and get some laughs out of it in the process.





ADDING... And so it begins, starting with World Nut Daily's Joseph "70's Porn Mustache" Farah.

April Fool! House HR 1255 Passes

For those of you who have been living under a political rock for the last few days, mark today's date on your calendar. For today is the day that 221 Republican members of the House of Representatives went on the record to show the country that they have no idea how the United States government works. Today is the day that the Republican members of the House who so highly regard the Constitution decided to wipe their asses with said document. Today is the day the GOP admitted it doesn't really give a shit about checks and balances, or the proper procedure of how a bill actually becomes a law. A little hint for House Republicans: this isn't it.

Led by Republican House leader Eric Cantor, the Government Shutdown Prevention Act passed by a vote of 221-202. The bill states that if the Senate doesn't act on the bill by a specific date, another bill automatically becomes law. This bill is so fucking ridiculous, even Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Freakazoidland), the guy who believes in private army conspiracy theories, voted against it. Gohmert! How does that make Cantor feel? How does Eric Cantor feel that calls to Speaker Boehner regarding this issue were blocked and referred to Cantor's office? What does Cantor's view from underneath the bus look like?

And just as a reminder for those with short attention spans or bad short term memory, this vote took place and was passed by the same party that insisted to read the Constitution aloud on the House floor during the first day of session (and they screwed that up in the process). This is the same 112th GOP led Congress (the House anyway) that passed a rule stating that each bill introduced should cite Constitutional authority.

I'm still waiting for Cantor to jump out of the House chamber cloak room shouting, "April Fool!"

Eric Cantor is a Douchebag

It has only taken a matter of three months as the majority in the House of Representatives for House Majority "Leader" Eric Cantor to render himself completely irrelevant. His imitation of an adolescent power hungry school hall monitor was on full display today when he stated without hesitation that if the Senate does not act on the HR1 after the House passes the... wait for it... "Prevention of a Government Shutdown Act," the spending cuts in HR1 will become the law of the land.

I actually feel sorry for Cantor, being deprived by his parents as a child the pleasure of the lessons learned from Schoolhouse Rock on how a bill becomes a law. Add to that the fact that he's gotten this far in American politics without the apparent knowledge of how the American system of checks and balances works, and you see before you the de-facto running mate for Michele Bachmann's presidential aspirations. After all, you don't want to look smarter than your top of the ticket running mate (see McCain/Palin '08).

But as a refresher, here's a cartoon made that even 9-year olds supposedly understood.



But it seems Eric Cantor thinks that this is how to treat a bill.



Now you may think me naive to believe that this is not a political ploy by Cantor to try and deflect any blame from the GOP when the government shutdown happens. And it will happen. But I'm going to take Cantor at his word and believe that he is as moronic as he sounds if he thinks that non-action by the Senate of a bill passed by the House by a certain deadline will tacitly make both that bill and the bill it is referencing, passed by only one half of one branch of government and neither signed by the President, the law of the land.

Here's Cantor in his own words, pissing all over the Constitution.



Is it me, or does it seem that the majority of Republican party is going batshit crazy simultaneously? You really can't make this shit up. If you were to write this scenario as a screenplay, you'd be laughed out of Hollywood for being completely unrealistic... and that's the same industry that produced and released Showgirls.

Can't. Contain. My. Anger.

POSTED BY JHW22

Holy fricken shit!

The Republicans in the House decided to read the Constitution on the House floor today. Great. I have no problems with that. In fact, I often listen to members of Congress act like they have the Constitution memorized yet don't seem to know what's in it. My beef is with the way they are having one member at a time read from it then another member and so on. I don't want them to recite it -- I want them to comprehend it.

But NOW, NOW, Boehner and Cantor ARE GIVING A FUCKING PRESS CONFERENCE!! DURING THE READING. They left the chamber during the reading THEY DEMANDED of the sacred document that they profess to love and respect and protect and they left to GIVE A DAMN PRESS CONFERENCE!!!!

GET YOUR ASSES BACK IN THE DAMN CHAMBER! FAIL! FAIL! FAIL!

It's All About Jobs...

...right, Republicans? So tell me, what's the first thing on your agenda when you take over the House on Wednesday, January 5th?*

Republican leaders in the new House say they'll hold a vote next week to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

WHAAAA?!?! But you've spent the last year and a half criticizing the White House for prioritizing the concept of affordable health care for all and that what they really needed to do was focus on the economy and jobs.

The announcement of the Jan. 12 vote by the No. 2 House Republican, Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, sets the stage for a showdown with the Democratic-led Senate.

Excellent! Let's reinstate the power of insurance companies to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions, dropping you when you get sick after years of paying premiums and opening up that Medicare donut hole again. That'll be a real winner with constituents.

Of course, it's just all for show because it'll never pass the Senate. Welcome to the first week of the 112th Congress. Out with the old, in with... ah, nevermind.

____________________
*Why can't Congress go back to work on Monday like the rest of us common folk?

Eric Cantor Interviewed on The Daily Show

Kudos to Cantor for going on and thinking he could get one over on Jon Stewart. Yes, Stewart let him get away with the occasional GOP talking point here or there, but there was a larger issue that loomed, namely the hyperbolic rhetoric coming from both sides, and was discussed in the extended interview. Of course Cantor thought it was just a book plug, and who does he think is going to buy his book in that audience?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Eric Cantor
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Eric Cantor Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Eric Cantor Extended Interview Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Fiscal Conservatives...

... my ass.  And yet misinformed yokels fall for it every time.  Because if the perception is that someone other than they is getting a piece of the pie, it's wastefully spent, undeserved entitlements.

Paul Krugman explains.

Domestic Enemy

Faisal Shahzad?  No.  Barack Obama.

...[A Heritage Foundation] audience member claimed Obama had put us at greater risk, and asked [Rep. Eric] Cantor: “What would he have to do differently to be defined as a domestic enemy?” That prompted loud, approving laughter from the crowd.

Cantor replied, in part: “No one thinks that the president is a domestic enemy,” prompting audible grumbling from the crowd...

Seriously. The inmates have taken over the asylum.

(H/T Greg Sargent)

There Is No Equivalency

Eric Cantor is a douchebag of epic proportions.

While criticizing Democrats who've been the targets of vandalism, assault and domestic terrorism claiming they are "dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon," simply for acknowledging they happened, said douchebag politicized the bullet that was shot into his window. There's only one problem: the bullet wasn't shot into his window.

Richmond police say the bullet that hit a window of Republican Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor's office had been randomly fired skyward.

...In a news release, Richmond police said that the bullet had been fired into the air early Tuesday. It hit the front window of a building that houses Cantor's campaign office as it fell to back earth at a sharp angle.

So he criticizes Democrats for publicizing the acts of violence... while publicizing his own event, which turned out not to be a direct act upon his office.

There is no equivalency to this incident and shattering windows with rocks. There is no equivalency to this incident and being spat upon. There is no equivalency to this incident and deliberately cutting someone's gas line whose address you got from a right wing blog.

If Cantor gets death threats in his Virginia district because he's Jewish, it's a different matter than getting death threats because you voted to give more Americans access to health care. Those are two very different scenarios.

But douchebags wouldn't know that. Or won't acknowledge it.

Adding... Perhaps Eric Cantor should look into stricter gun laws that would prevent incidents like his accidental bullet through a window to occur. What do you think are the chances?

Rush Limbaugh: Leader of the GOP (The Eric Cantor Edition)

The Party of Inclusion

As for us Republicans, the outlines of the GOP of the future are already coming into focus. We pledge to become a party of inclusion, not exclusion. What binds us is our faith – a belief in the ability of individuals to succeed in a free environment and to shape their own destiny through hard work.

Opportunity and the incentive to work and produce inspired America to flourish. The Republican Party will never forget that.

~ Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), House minority whip, January 28, 2009

Someone should remind House Minority Leader John Boehner of that "inclusion" thing so the next time he decides to produce a fearmongering video, he should probably leave out the photos of President Obama meeting with the Hispanic Caucus that he interspersed with pictures of Hugo Chavez and Al-Qaeda operatives with rocket launchers as well a photo of the Pentagon aflame.

Hispanic Democrats are furious and demanding an apology over an image wedged in a new GOP web video on terrorism that shows members of the Hispanic Caucus sitting at a table with President Obama.

...Among many other images designed to, according to the GOP, “[underscore] why the American people are growing more worried about the Administration’s political decisions on national security,” the video includes an image at the 1:11 mark of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at the White House.

You see, they really are the party of inclusion... except for Hispanics, Muslims and other brown-skinned people that don't look like they do. The caucus' complaint doesn't upset me as much as that video. So much for the GOP changing their tune. Sinking ship, my friends. Sinking ship.

Forgive me, but...

posted by Armadillo Joe

I know B'way-C said no SUPERTRAINS!, but in this instance I have to break the rules and hope for the best because it sure is funny when conservatives say one thing and do another -- which is, naturally, all the time because they could never actually live by the words they profess (but that's another blog post for another time) -- and watching them get on the bandwagon while protesting the very same bandwagon is one more too-precious-not-to-mock entry in the hypocrisy file.

Because, it turns out, despite the fact that he belittled the whole idea mercilessly with lies about an L.A. to Vegas high-speed link, Eric Cantor remains true to the for-me-not-for-thee creed of the modern GOP when he actually expresses the idea that rail is a good for the car-loving folks of Vir-ginny (via Huffpost):

Asked about high-speed rail at a recent local event in Virginia, Cantor was all thumbs up. "If there is one thing that I think all of us here on both sides of the political aisle from all parts of the region agree with, it's that we need to do all we can to promote jobs here in the Richmond area,"

Of course, he is (as ever) disingenuously acting the part of the aggrieved party. If you read that passage closely, you realize that he is getting all upset because Obama's rail plan doesn't include a high-speed link between D.C. and Richmond. Why a high-speed link would even need to exist between D.C. and Richmond he doesn't say, but I chalk it up to regional chauvanism as everyone thinks their part of the puzzle is the most important. He's in the House, so I am unsurprised that he wants some of that steel wheeled "pork" for his district, too. One man's pork is another man's stimulus.

But yet another conservative, though, has had a revelation that "law-zee mercy" rail is a good, conservative thing that any self-respecting conservative should support because a car-oriented culture is destructive of families and communities, which are good conservative things that conservatives like (and no one else is allowed to like, fucking hippies) so conservatives should support such uplifting, conservative policies that promote rail travel.

OK, I make fun, because the author David Schaengold, actually very eloquently and persuasively makes some very salient arguments in favor of rail travel and against what I have called (stealing from James Kunstler) the Happy Motoring culture. He even sums up rather nicely the heretofore liberal/conservative split on rail travel (h/t Sully):

Sadly, American conservatives have come to be associated with support for transportation decisions that promote dependence on automobiles, while American liberals are more likely to be associated with public transportation, city life, and pro-pedestrian policies. This association can be traced to the ’70s, when cities became associated with social dysfunction and suburbs remained bastions of ‘normalcy.’ This dynamic was fueled by headlines mocking ill-conceived transit projects that conservatives loved to point out as examples of wasteful government spending. Of course, just because there is a historic explanation for why Democrats are “pro-transit” and Republicans are “pro-car” does not mean that these associations make any sense. Support for government-subsidized highway projects and contempt for efficient mass transit does not follow from any of the core principles of social conservatism.

It is amazing to me how the conservatives are always on the wrong side of everything. Now that we've seen what expensive gasoline can do to our economy and the whole idea of Peak Oil is gaining ground in the mainstream, the policies championed by conservatives for decades, policies that promoted car-centric sprawl and corporate big box stores and all the assorted accoutrement of the Happy Motoring suburban lifestyle (a lifestyle that tended to vote Republican, BTW -- hence the support) is now coming back over to the side of rail.

Anyone remember National Review's list of "Conservative Rock Songs"? It's kinda like that, in the "if I like it, it can't be liberal - thus it must be conservative" sort of way all conservatives everywhere are willing to make moral, economic, political, ethical and cultural exemptions for themselves from their much vaunted "values."

At any rate, though a conservative, Mr. Schaengold makes some very good arguments in favor of rail travel. Hell, he's so far off the GOP reservation that he not only manages to pay Hillary Clinton a compliment, he does so regarding one of the Hillary-bashing canards Reich-wingers have used relentlessly for over a decade to club the former First Lady: he agrees with her declaration that "It Takes A Village."

I'll wait for them to apologize for impeaching her husband, too.

Please read the whole thing. It is definitely worth it.

GOP Budget Message: "Homina Homina Homina"

Eric "The Squirrel" Cantor appeared on Meet The Press today to poo-poo Poresident Obama's budget while bringing up the fictional train from Disneyland to Las Vegas again, but he did say that the GOP was going to offer an alternative budget proposal.

MR. GREGORY: Are you going to vote for the president's budget?

REP. CANTOR: Listen, the budget process, as you know, David, is one that has just begun on Capitol Hill. There is a lot of, I think, reticence to embrace his budget on both sides of the aisle. This budget, frankly, doesn't have the focus that we need right now in this economy. The focus should be, job one, fixing this banking system and trying to get jobs created again.

MR. GREGORY: Right. But the, but the budget says there's $750 billion to help capitalize the banks. You, you have not offered a figure on what you think is necessary to do that, other than saying you got to do something to get private capital in.

REP. CANTOR: David, David, the Republicans will have a plan.

Meanwhile in Bensonhurst, Mitch "The Fish" McConnell was doing his best Ralph Kramden impersonation on This Week with George Snuffleupagus.

George Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed McConnell for a comprehensive Republican alternative budget. Each time, McConnell simply attacked Obama’s plan. He said that he and his colleagues would be offering amendments to “reframe” what the Democrats have proposed, but don’t plan on offering a comprehensive plan:

McCONNELL: [W]e are going to offer a number of amendments to the Democratic proposal. […]

STEPHANOPOULOS: But shouldn’t you have a comprehensive approach that lays out the trade-offs? If you just have rifle-shot amendments, you don’t have to make all the trade-offs that you have to make in an overall budget.

McCONNELL: Well, we’re just sort of getting down in the weeds here about procedure. Through the amendment process, we would absolutely reformulate the Democratic plan. Whether you have a comprehensive approach or whether you offer an amendment is something a parliamentarian can debate.

So what's the plan? Come up with an alternative, comprehensive plan to show you really want to play ball, or weaken the Democratic plan with crap ass amendments? Enjoy the wilderness, boys.