Weigel

Let’s Come Together and Pass… Something!

Eric Cantor has struck a very measured tone in his comments since the launch of the American Jobs Act. He wants to support a bill, you see – there is no apparent upside or interest in attacking the bill, full stop. Instead, Cantor is harrumphing the tone of the sales pitch and hinting at what can’t survive a final vote.

“Forthe president to say pass this bill, all or nothing – it’s just not the way things are done anywhere,” said Cantor in a briefing with reporters today. “To say ‘pass my bill’$2 17 times is not, I don’t think, the tone, nor is it a way forward for us.”

What is a way forward? A jobs bill, maybe. One that looks like this jobs bill. One that will consist mainly of tax cuts. “Anything akin to the stimulus will not be supported by the American people,” said Cantor. The big idea in the bill, the “infrastructure bank”? No dice: Cantor worried that it would be a “Freddie and Fannie for roads and bridges.”