Eric Cantor Embarrasses Himself Playing Sequester Blame Game

Last updated on February 12th, 2013 at 12:19 am

If Eric Cantor’s performance on Meet the Press this morning is any indication, Republicans are getting a bit nervous about the impending sequester.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) fell in line with the Republicans’ sequester strategy by playing the blame game, saying that President Obama proposed the sequester in the first place. “The president, he’s the one that proposed the sequester in the first place.” This is also known as the hot potato game.

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It seems Republicans don’t like the consequences of their debt ceiling standoff. They wouldn’t be in this position if they hadn’t chosen to use the debt ceiling as a weapon of mass economic destruction. Their debt ceiling games have already cost us 18.9 billion dollars, so it’s confusing to listen to them whine about who proposed a solution to their threat to tank the economy.

Cantor dug down for the old reliable bludgeon, saying that President Obama wants to raise taxes. And then, because Republicans are so great with math and budgets, he lectured, “This is not… the best way to go about trying to control spending.” Translation: Republicans don’t do compromise, Republicans can’t handle the defense cuts, and Republicans don’t likey where this is going, mommy. Please stop the ride.

To wit, Aerospace Industries (the premier trade association representing the nation’s major aerospace and defense manufacturers) is promoting this tweet today: ‏@AIAspeaks

Tell your elected officials that #sequestration risks 2.14 million jobs across all sectors of the #economy. RT to Stop! pic.twitter.com/IGeTsVW6

But new talking points! Cantor tells us Republicans are all about “helping folks” (eerily, once again, reminiscent of Obama). They are going to help you by first helping the rich people and corporations and defense contractors, okay? Trickle down with the kinder, softer Republican Party.

Kasie Hunt of NBC News saw right through Cantor’s attempt to deflect responsibility: @kasie .@EricCantor: “The president, he’s the one that proposed the sequester in the first place.” #blamegame #mtp

When NBC News sees through your blame game, you may have overplayed your hand.

Someone needs to put the Republicans in the calm down corner. However, bonus points to Cantor for maintaining his level of smug superiority even as he dished out transparently desperate talking points meant to cover the fact that the Republican Party’s policies have not changed one iota.

As the Republicans careen toward a collision with yet another GOP-created disaster, they can only hope that someone is still buying what they’re selling.

Sarah Jones

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