House Majority Leader Eric Cantor stopped by the Heritage Foundation today to explain the GOP plan to slash government spending to 2008 levels — and to make a fresh negative comparison between the current U.S. government and the evils of Europe.
The specter of the European bogeyman is classic Republican rhetoric, and a theme Cantor has raised on more than one occasion. Today, Cantor turned away from the classic terror tales of universal health care and government-funded social safety nets in favor of suggesting that unless American changes its ways soon, the country might catch the same disdain for capitalist success found across the pond.
Reading from a letter he received from an MBA student who spent time in England, Cantor said that the country whose wanton, insatiable appetite for wealth reshaped the world (including our very own United States) has rejected the idea of making a buck the old fashioned way.
“He was amazed how differently entrepreneurs are regarded abroad,” Cantor said, referring to the letter. “He said, ‘Starting a business, even if you fail in the process, is a badge of honor for us here in the United States. But in Europe, entrepreneurship is frowned upon and consequently the best and the brightest are afraid to take a risk.'”
It gets worse, Cantor says. The British aren’t even trying anymore.
He goes on to say in the letter that many of my European friends are very smart and educated. But when I ask them about their career path, no one ever mentions starting a business. They don’t think any big products or businesses will come from the UK in the next 50 years.
For the record, London-based BP is currently the fourth-largest business on the planet, and many consider the London-based James Dyson one of the world’s top consumer product innovators.
Nevertheless, Cantor warned that unless something is done in America soon, there’s a serious danger the Britain is coming.
“Now we all know there’s a lot being written today as some are actually asking whether the US is really losing its competitive edge,” Cantor said. “And over the past year when I’ve talked to entrepreneurs across the country, when I meet with people making decisions about where to allocate capital and whether to put money to work, they’re actually questioning whether it’s worth the risk for them to do it here in the U.S.”
The fastest way to avoid the fate of the UK here in the states, Cantor said, is to follow the Republican playbook of slashing federal spending back to 2008 levels as soon as possible. And to put an end to the Obama administration’s love affair with capitalism-stifling regulation.
“When you redistribute wealth and impose stringent regulations, it comes at a direct cost to freedom and to economic opportunity,” Cantor said.
Despite polls showing most Americans don’t favor deep cuts to the expensive domestic spending programs that will need to be trimmed in order to dramatically shrink the government, Cantor said the election that put him in the Majority Leader’s chair in the House was a clear indication that voters are as afraid of becoming England as the student who wrote Cantor that letter was.
“The recent midterm election that we just experienced was about many things,” he said. “But above all, I’d argue, it was a repudiation of an agenda that responds to these problems by siphoning money away from the private sector and therefore reducing opportunity and freedom and concentrating the power and resources here in Washington.”
Watch Cantor’s Heritage appearance:
