Speaker of the US House of Representatives John Boehner, the top US Republican, is being upstaged in the battle to raise the debt limit by his younger and more partisan deputy, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is widely seen as wanting his job.
In recent days, Cantor has established himself as a lead negotiator in White House talks, willing to tangle with US President Barack Obama, while Boehner sits relatively mum.
Cantor helped nix a potential deal last week between Boehner and Obama that Democrats said was expected to feature US$3 trillion in spending cuts and perhaps up to nearly US$1 trillion in new tax revenue.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Boehner is hearing Cantor’s footsteps,” said a veteran Republican lawmaker, asking not to be identified by name. “And those footsteps are getting louder.”
Cantor seems more attuned than Boehner to the overall wishes of House Republicans, many of whom are aligned with the anti-tax Tea Party movement that considers “compromise” a dirty word.
A veteran House Republican said: “It’d be naive not to think that Cantor would like, some day, to become House speaker. A lot depends on how all this works out. It’s defining debate.”
Boehner, 61, and Cantor, 48, deny any friction and say they have a strong relationship built largely on mutual opposition to tax hikes.
Obama and Congress are facing an Aug. 2 deadline to increase the US debt limit to avert an unprecedented US debt default that would upset markets worldwide. Boehner and Cantor both want to push Obama and the Democrats to agree to trillions of dollars in spending cuts in return for an increase in the fast-approaching US$14.3 trillion US debt limit.
At a news conference on Thursday, Boehner put his arm around Cantor and rejected talk of a rift between them, as well as Democratic charges that his deputy has undermined efforts to get a deal.
“We have been in this fight together,” Boehner said. “Any suggestion that the role that Eric has played is anything less than helpful is just wrong.”
“The speaker and I are on the same page,” Cantor said earlier this week, dismissing claims to the contrary as unfounded “soap opera.”
Cantor, a former attorney from Virginia, is well known in Congress for being ambitious. Democratic aides have sent media what they say is the phrase Cantor wrote in his yearbook when he graduated from a private prep school in Richmond in 1981: “I want what I want when I want it.”
A former Republican leadership aide said: “There is always competition at the top. No. 2 wants to be No. 1. But I think it’s a pretty good team, a little bit of ‘good cop, bad cop.’ Boehner can tell Obama: ‘Hey, I want a deal. But I have to deal with Cantor.’”
Boehner and Cantor have differences, at least stylistic ones, starting with the speaker’s laid back approach and the much more aggressive style of Cantor.
Having served more than two decades in Congress, twice as long as Cantor, Boehner is a political war horse and a backslapper. The former small businessman from Ohio can stand up and fight, but he has also shown an ability to cross the political aisle to find common ground.
Cantor is a leader of conservative “Young Guns” Republicans whom he helped recruit. In a 2006 House leadership race, Cantor backed Boehner’s opponent.
“They are two very different guys,” said another Republican lawmaker who has worked closely with both men.
“John’s a legislator. He wants to get things done,” the lawmaker said. “Eric is more focused on what the party should stand for and the political implications.”
“Boehner has some Democratic friends,” a Capitol Hill lobbyist said. “You’d be hard pressed to name a Democrat who Cantor is friends with.”
Obama made it clear at a White House news conference on Monday whom he prefers.
“I think Speaker Boehner has been very sincere about trying to do something big” that would include spending cuts and an increase in tax revenues, Obama said, adding: “His politics within his [Republican House] caucus are very difficult.”
House Republicans applaud the Boehner-Cantor team.
“Both have jobs to do and they are doing them,” US Representative Lynn Westmoreland said. “They are effective.”
“I don’t see a problem,” US Representative Shelley Moore Capito said.
As for reports of tension between the two, she smiled and said: “It makes matters more theatrical.”
Earlier this year, Democrats complain, Cantor pushed Boehner to seek deeper spending cuts than the speaker seemed ready to accept to avert a partial government shutdown.
Cantor also caught Boehner off guard last month when he walked out of deficit talks led by US Vice President Joe Biden.
Last week, Cantor opposed the outlines of a “grand deal” between Obama and Boehner expected to include tax reform as well as changes in Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs long championed by Democrats.
Democrats complain that Cantor has been the only congressional leader refusing to compromise.
“This Congress is waiting for Leader Cantor to step up to the plate in similar way so that maybe we can come to a compromise,” US Senator Charles Schumer said.
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