Cantor Keeps all House Republicans Off Stimulus Bill

In his first big test as Republican whip, Rep. Eric I. Cantor of Virginia succeeded in uniting House Republicans in 100 percent opposition to Wednesday’s $819 billion economic stimulus bill.

But with the bill passing easily in the Democratic-controlled House, some analysts say the GOP runs the risk of appearing too obstructionist as Congress grapples with the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.

“It’s a highly, highly risky move on their part,“ said Thomas E. Mann, who studies Congress at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

The stimulus bill passed in the House, 244 to 188, with 11 Democrats and 177 Republicans opposed.

The lockstep GOP opposition may be a tactical move, Mann said, to encourage the Senate to send a revised package back to the House that will attract more Republican support.

President Barack Obama has called on Congress to pass a stimulus bill by Feb. 16.

For Cantor, who was elected to his party’s No. 2 post in December, following the party’s election losses, the stimulus vote marked his first challenge to unite the minority party.

As Republican whip, Cantor is his party’s chief vote-counter in the House.

“This was a pretty easy bill to whip,“ said Rob Collins, Cantor’s deputy chief of staff.

Political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia Center for Politics called Cantor’s efforts impressive nonetheless. “He held everybody together.“

The risk, Sabato said, is that if the economy improves, Democrats can now use Republican opposition to the bill against them.

“Not a single Republican voted for [President Bill] Clinton’s stimulus bill and he used that to criticize them when the economy recovered,“ he said.

Collins said that is a risk “everybody factors in.“

The fact that no Republicans backed the bill speaks to the smaller number of moderate Republicans who now hold swing districts, Sabato said.

Moderates, like Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who voted with the GOP leadership recommendation, surprised some congressional analysts.

“The fact that they went along sort of suggests that Cantor and [Republican Leader John] Boehner persuaded them it made sense to stick together,“ said Mann.

But Collins said the high amount of spending in the bill made it an easy sell to moderate members.

“This bill just spent too much money on government programs… and never hit its mark, which was creating jobs.“

Republicans praised their House leadership team Wednesday night for keeping the party together and providing them an alternative on which they could vote. The GOP alternative bill Cantor helped craft was focused almost exclusively on tax cuts. Republicans said it would create 6.2 million jobs and cost $478 billion. Two Democrats voted for it and nine Republicans opposed it.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took no blame Thursday for the bill’s failure to attract a single Republican.

“They probably voted their conscience,“ she said at a news conference. “We reached out to Republicans all along the way.“

She accused House Republicans of not being open to President Obama. Just hours before Obama met privately with Republicans Tuesday, the GOP leadership had asked the rank-and-file to oppose the stimulus bill.

“Republicans in the country support this,“ Pelosi said. “The tactics of Republicans in Washington is another story.“

But Mann said House Republicans may have calculated that Wednesday’s vote will not be the stimulus vote the public remembers in the end. He said the Republicans may break ranks and vote for a compromise stimulus plan worked out with the Senate.

“Otherwise they are setting themselves up to fall into an even smaller minority,“ Mann said.