Keith Olbermann wasn't particularly thrilled to put it mildly after reading Republican Minority Leader Eric Cantor's recent op-ed in the Washington Post, where he pretended that the Republicans are even mildly concerned with job creation, and attacked President Obama for engaging in "class warfare." As Keith noted, that's something Cantor should know all too well about since his party has been engaging in it and winning it for some time now.
OLBERMANN: This is a society where one percent of its citizens control forty two percent of the wealth. This is a society where the four hundred richest people made $17 billion among them in 1992 and paid twenty nine percent tax. Three years ago that top four hundred made $90 billion and paid twenty one and a half percent tax. This is a society in which class warfare, does not need to be “incited.” It has been fully and viciously waged by the Republicans, Mr. Cantor, and his banker wife included, for three decades.
Class warfare, the wealthy seeking to enrich themselves endlessly, at the expense of everybody else, that has been the entire point of the Republican Party since long before the state of Virginia began to investigate if Mrs. Cantor is involved in what appears to have been a scheme to trade a contract to manage a state pension system, for donations to Mr. Cantor's political action committee.
There is class warfare in this country and Eric Cantor, while hardly powerful enough to be the Gadhafi in a parallel, is at least the equivalent of one of his henchmen. Eric Cantor of the rich people's warfare against the middle class and the poor – today's Worst Person in the World.
Here's more on Cantor's wife -- Bank that has state pension fund donates to Cantor after wife named chair of pension system:
Each year, the Virginia Retirement System pays Bank of New York Mellon $4.5 million to hold and protect its pension.
Records show the bank — sued by the state late Thursday for allegedly defrauding state and local pension funds out of $40 million — began donating the maximum amount under federal law to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s PAC and reelection campaign beginning in May 2010. Cantor’s wife, Diana, joined the VRS board in April of that year, and was appointed board chairwoman June 2010.
The bank’s political action committee donated $5,000 to Cantor’s Every Republican is Crucial PAC Feb. 11, 2011. It sent Cantor’s reelection campaign $5,000 on May 21, 2010, and again June 22, 2010, and $5,000 to Eric PAC on May 21, 2010. Read on...
And Steve Benen slammed Cantor for his op-ed this week as well -- Cantor puts his confusion in writing:
Because House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) will play a leading role in blocking all job-creation measures in Congress, it’s important to appreciate how he approaches economic policy. Here he is, for example, making his case in a Washington Post op-ed today.
[T]he Obama administration’s anti-business, hyper-regulatory, pro-tax agenda has fueled economic uncertainty and sent the message from the administration that “we want to make it harder to create jobs.” There is no other conclusion….
Cantor, of course, made up that quote, as part of a ridiculous argument. In effect, the dimwitted Majority Leader — who opposes job-creation measures he used to support, and has vowed to kill any proposal to boost the economy — believes the White House is deliberately against lowering unemployment. Given the frequency with which the Republican “sabotage” question comes up, Cantor’s attack is as ironic as it absurd.
The op-ed went on to say:
Unfortunately, we have found President Obama to be an unwilling partner when it comes to getting America’s fiscal house in order. Since taking office, he has added trillions to the debt, ignored the recommendations of his own fiscal commission and put forth a budget that failed to address the drivers of our debt. Then we had to drag him to the table to make even the modest spending cuts that Standard & Poor’s says don’t go far enough.
Who’s an “unwilling partner” on fiscal issues? If memory serves, it was just a month ago that President Obama, much to the dismay of his own party, was willing to make sweeping entitlement changes as part of a package of $4 trillion in debt reduction. And it was Cantor and his GOP allies who refused to even consider the offer. Read on...
