Eric Cantor (Wikimedia Commons)
This speaks for itself:
U.S. House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said on Monday he will not support President Barack Obama's proposal to renovate U.S. schools as part of the administration's bill to spur job growth.
Yes, the Republican House Majority Leader is against renovating schools. Because ensuring that American children are well-educated just isn't that important. But Cantor did say the president should instead be cutting regulations, which he says kill jobs. Of course even Alan Greenspan finally conceded that lax regulation at least contributed to the 2008 financial meltdown. And of course the restoration of the regulations that might have prevented the financial meltdown never had a chance. If Cantor really actually cared about creating jobs he would be promoting the type of government spending that helped dig this nation out of the Great Depression, but Cantor doesn't care about jobs. He cares about something else.
As Judd Legum of Think Progress notes:
The president’s proposal is a modest effort. The total maintenance and repair backlog at U.S. schools is estimated at $270 billion to $500 billion. While the funding Obama is proposing is fully offset, Cantor voted to build schools in Iraq and Afghanistan with deficit spending.
Construction and building projects generally create about 10,000 jobs per billion spent. At a time of high unemployment, the funding that Cantor opposes would create about 300,000 jobs.
Eric Cantor opposes creating 300,000 jobs. Eric Cantor favors building schools in Iraq and Afghanistan but not in the United States. Let's hope the Democrats use that in campaign ads.