Cantor sees the world a little differently than most Americans; his world belongs to the wealthy, and the middle class and poor are seen as an impediment to his world. You are the garbage to be swept off the street; he will gladly support prisons to incarcerate you, but not colleges to educate you.
Cantor's first measure introduced to Congress was the Education Empowerment Tax Credit Act that would provide for a $1,000 per-child education tax credit for all parents with school-age children. The bill would help parents to meet their children's individual education needs. The credit could only be used toward the purchase of computers, encyclopedias, tutors, special education needs and private school tuition.
Contrast that with Cantor's vote against grants for Black and Hispanic colleges in 2006. Cantor has little knowledge of public schools because he never attended any. He attended elite private schools where he could be protected from the riffraff and ruffians often found in public schools. Perhaps that is why he votes against public education at every opportunity. In 2007 he voted no on $10.2 billion for Federal education and Health and Human Services projects.
No, of course not, it's Mummy and Daddy's job. "Mummy I want to go to George Washington University and then to William & Mary for law school."
"I'll tell your father to get his checkbook when he gets home, sonny."
"No Mummy! Now, I want it right now!"
Cantor's ideology and rhetoric put him proudly in the Bush Republican camp. He had a perfect 100% record of voting with the Bush administration. 100%, think of that for a moment. Think of what sort of governments have dumas or Reichstags or politburos where the members vote 100% with the leadership.
While Cantor's ideology precludes him from aiding the milieu of the great unwashed with financing, he does however want to aid them down the path to a better life through prayer. He supported an amendment to allow school prayer during the war on terror. He supported an amendment to prevent the courts from stripping "under God" from the pledge of allegiance and for training public housing recipients to learn about marriage and work. In Cantor's world that's all the courthouse Joe six pack will ever need.
Cantor supports limiting damages in lawsuits for wrongful death or injury from defective products and for capping damages in medical lawsuits, but there is an honest reason for his positions. Eric Cantor hates you, you are not Eric Cantor, you are not even friends with Eric Cantor. You are those dirty little people that wash his cars or work in his family's real estate business, building shopping centers. Why should little people like you be allowed to sue the really important people to resolve your pissy little problems?
An air of elitism surrounds Cantor. His wife, a former Vice President for Goldman Sachs, is now a managing director for the Emigrant Bank. Cantor voted yes to retain reduced taxes on capital gains and making the Bush tax cut permanent. He advocated, along with President Bush, to privatize Social Security because the wealthy traders on Wall Street could do a far better job of managing your retirement funds than some bureaucrat in Washington. He supported eliminating the inheritance tax because why should the super wealthy pay taxes on the money Mummy and Daddy wanted them to have?
He is a supporter of the Flat Tax, whereby all taxes on capital gains and dividends would be eliminated and a national sales tax of 23% would be imposed on all of those pesky, dirty, smelly people. When gas prices reached $5.00 per gallon, under the flat tax scheme the eighteen-cent a gallon highway tax would have been replaced with $1.11 per gallon flat tax.
Eric Cantor is a strong proponent for law enforcement because, well you know why, because Eric Cantor hates you. He supported the Patriot Act because he doesn't trust you; you look suspicious to him, an obvious criminal type. Besides, George Bush and Dick Cheney told him to and they're both wealthy so they would know. He is also worried that we're letting too many people out of prison, even after they finish their sentences.
"Dismissing all charges if someone completes drug rehab under another provision I think is outrageous. You are going to remove the hammer that would allow you to keep people in line." (Eric Cantor)
You need to be hammered and controlled, and guess who does the hammering and controlling? That's why he voted No on requiring FISA warrants for domestic surveillance. He even voted No on civil oversight, and Yes on electronic surveillance without any warrant at all. And, of course, retroactive immunity for the telecoms that cooperated in the surveillance.
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