House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) sidestepped a question of whether he would break Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge in order to reach a deal on the fiscal cliff during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday. Instead, he said his focus was solving problems and jumpstarting the economy.
“A lot has been said about this pledge and I will tell you when I go to the constituents that re-elected me, it is not about that pledge, it really is about trying to solve problems,” Cantor said. “And as we know, this election we just went through is very much about, No. 1, what are we going to do to reclaim a momentum in this economy? How do we get us back to that? And, two, how do you solve a problem?”
Cantor continued: “And so if right now the question is how do you do that? Well, John Boehner went to the White House 10 days ago and said, ‘hey, Republicans in the House are willing to put revenues on the table.’ That was a big move, right? And we said we are going to do that in the name of trying to fix the problem to respond to the electorate that re-elected this president, but at the same time we say we weren’t elected to raise taxes. We want to help people get back it to work.”
Pressed on whether a potential deal might mean breaking the pledge, Cantor replied: ” I haven’t talked to Grover Norquist so I don’t know what he wants to do with his pledge. What I know is the constituents that I represent, and I believe most American people, want to see, No. 1, more jobs created.”
