[Nesster]

More on Eric Cantor's financial ties and interests:
Cantor Champions Hedge Funds? Interests

Among the White House’s top demands for new revenue are changes in the tax code affecting hedge funds, private equity firms and real estate partnerships, which would raise an estimated $20 billion over 10 years.

For the past four years, Cantor has taken the lead in the House on fighting the same changes. He also has been one of the top recipients of contributions from those industries — last year, his two fundraising committees took in nearly $2 million from securities and investment firms and real estate companies, more than double the figure for Boehner (R-Ohio).

The hedge fund and private equity proposals were at the center of Cantor’s decision to exit talks with Vice President Biden this month. Since then, the prospect for any immediate tax increases has declined, with the focus turning to spending cuts and broader tax reform postponed.

This dismays Democrats, in part because Cantor has cast his defense of the investment tax treatment as part of the broader tea party-fueled anti-tax orthodoxy. To Democrats, Cantor embodies the convergence of tea party and business interests, which is often obscured by the movement’s anti-Wall Street rhetoric.

“This [anti-tax stance] isn’t all coming up from the grass roots,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “This goes to some longtime cozy relationships between House Republicans and hedge fund managers in the financial sector.”

A spokesman for Cantor noted that he always has opposed raising the investment taxes in question but declined to comment further.

Cantor has said repeatedly that Obama and other Democrats are exaggerating the value of closing tax loopholes for financiers. Although Cantor opposes closing them to raise revenue, he says he is open to doing so as part of broader tax reform that lowers overall rates.

“So I know it makes for good politics to throw the shiny ball out there . . . that somehow Republicans are wed to that kind of policy to sustain these preferences, when all along, in our budget and in our plan, we have said we’re for tax reform, we have said we’re for bringing down rates on everybody,” he said on the House floor last week.

Jennifer Thompson, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and former Republican campaign operative, said Cantor’s longtime opposition to the investment tax provisions is a sincere reflection of his conservatively inclined district.

“Eric Cantor is a Virginian and you can’t separate too much from that fact,” she said. “His constituents are very much aligned with the no taxes and being back in the black and that’s what Eric Cantor represents.”

Lawmakers from both parties have cultivated the investment community, but Cantor, whose wife is a former Goldman Sachs vice president, has had particularly strong connections. In 2006, his campaign committee and his leadership PAC, established to support other Republicans, collected $682,500 from securities and investment and real estate firms, far more than any other Republican on the Ways and Means Committee and nearly double the take of then-Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Cantor sprang into action in 2007, when Democrats proposed the two major tax code changes that have been at the center of the debt talks. He formed the Coalition for the Freedom of American Investors and Retirees and invited several dozen industry groups to the opening meeting.

One of the changes revolves around “carried interest” — the pay managers receive for gains they produce for investors — which is taxed at the long-term capital gains rate of 15 percent. Many tax experts argue that it should be taxed at the 35 percent rate for ordinary income because it is the managers’ compensation for services performed, not the result of their own capital investment.

Another proposal would tax profits from the sale of hedge funds as ordinary income.

Since 2007, Cantor has railed against the proposals, saying that the carried interest proposal would “raise taxes on innovation and opportunity in America” and harm “mom and pop” businesses.

[deadwolfbones]

@FixAaron: Club for Growth head Chris Chocola: "The Club for Growth strongly opposes the Boehner Debt Limit plan.”

@hotlinereid: Club for Growth says they "strongly oppose" Boehner plan, will score it as a negative when they consider endorsements.

So that's that.

[shooz]

Well, from what I've seen, Republicans cause job losses.
I watched them start falling after about 6mos. of Bush.
Boner(sic) is no better.

In 200+ Days The House GOP Has Voted To Kill 1.9 Million Jobs And Created 0

[GeneV]

ummm... from the 12% coupon the treasury will be paying the trust fund, after the default and rating downgrade? That's a brilliant funding strategy.

Things do work out sometimes.

[GeneV]

It needs to be a separate issue, but It needs to be addressed. Probably a 2% increase in FICA would help, gasp.

I would say the money should come from income tax paid to the general funds. That money was supposed to be repaid to SS on the bonds. In the last decade, the government took the money, gave tax cuts and still spent more. Per the original plan, it will be time to pay it back. Increasing the payroll tax will have the workers pay twice, while those who received the tax cuts don't.

[deadwolfbones]

CBO Report on the Boehner Plan

In short, it only cuts $1B in 2012. That'll kill it for the Tea Party caucus if nothing else does.

Cantor probably lookin' like this right now:

[shooz]

Good exposure, but the subject is way too centered for a hard right winger......
The partial heads in the foreground aren't helping either.
I keep wondering which on has his nads in the vice.

PS. Should a hard right winger stand to stage left for the sake of the picture?