House Majority Leader Eric Cantor doesn’t like the President’s budget. In news reports, Cantor is quoted as saying that it “’doubles down on the bad habits of the past four years,’” and how it reflects government spending more money in an attempt to create jobs. I share Mr. Cantor’s objections. However, I do wonder if they extend to government spending in his own congressional district.
One project that will give us a strong hint of Mr. Cantor’s seriousness is the proposed second fighter engine for the Defense Department’s joint Strike Fighter. Pratt & Whitney is the prime contractor on the fighter’s engine but General Electric and Rolls Royce have teamed to design an alternative. The reasoning is that two engine options can produce long-term savings. But neither the Defense Department nor Secretary Robert Gates wants the GE/Rolls Royce alternative and have actively tried to eliminate it.
Cantor and others successfully fought the Secretary’s initial attempts to kill the second engine. For Cantor, it was all about jobs – and defending a large local employer, Rolls Royce, that is already one of the state’s largest corporate welfare recipients.
Gates is trying to spike the engine again, and this time he hopes some of the new, tea party-inspired House freshmen will join him in the effort. A bipartisan group plans to offer a budget amendment that will remove the $450 million slated for the second engine out of the House’s version of the budget.
This will pose an interesting test for Cantor and the House leadership – including Speaker John Boehner, a strong backer of the GE/Rolls Royce alternative. If they truly dislike the President’s profligate ways, and have actually seen the light on spending, they will side with the freshmen, Gates and the Pentagon and embrace the cut.
Or, they could opt to play the same spending game Mr. Cantor says we can no longer afford: dumping more government money into programs the feds hope will create jobs.
