G.O.P.’s Cantor, Looking Past Politics of Debt
After lying low for several months, Mr. Cantor is reasserting his presence in the Capitol, even as Speaker John A. Boehner continues his struggles to maintain Republican unity. In the coming weeks, the majority leader plans to lay out a second, softer track for his party beyond the constant cycle of budget showdowns and deficit talks.
Notably, that track will include a new push for private-school vouchers for underprivileged children, health care options beyond the old fight over the president’s health care law, new work force training initiatives and a renewed push for science, technology and engineering visas for would-be immigrants.
After successfully engineering the latest debt ceiling vote last week, Mr. Cantor flew to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he road-tested those themes as the lone House Republican leader rubbing elbows with the international elite.
Citing a struggling single mother with a gifted child in a poor city neighborhood, he told Davos attendees, “We need to create some type of competitive mechanisms” to help her escape the bad schools she is stuck with. Between meetings with King Abdullah II of Jordan; President Shimon Peres of Israel; the International Monetary Fund director, Christine Lagarde; and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations, he spoke of “sane immigration policies,” unemployed youths and a German model for economic output.
Mr. Cantor is expected to lay out his domestic vision on Feb. 5.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/us/politics/eric-cantor-the-gop-majority-leader-looks-beyond-debt.html?hp
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