The Life and Role of Majority Leader Eric Cantor - Research Paper Example

The Life and Role of Majority Leader Eric Cantor Eric Ivan Cantor is the United s representative for the seventh Congressional district of the Virginia State. He is serving this post since 2001. He is one of the most important members of the Republican Party. On the 3rd of January, 2011 Eric Cantor became the House Majority Leader at the 112th Congress. Before this honor, he served as the House Minority Whip in the period of 2009 and 2011. He holds the political and authoritative power of controlling the northern as well as western parts of Richmond. He is the only Jewish Republican politician serving in the Congress of the country at present (Stone, 2010, p. 581). Furthermore, he is also ranked as the highest member among all the members of the state of Virginia (Stone, 2010, p. 582). This paper is aimed at providing a legislative biography and a historical analysis of the life and role of Eric Cantor as the Majority Leader. Eric Cantor, his life and his significance in the Congress: Eric Cantor was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1963 and was the second among the three children. His mother, Mary Lee, was a schoolteacher and his father, Eddie Cantor, was an owner of a real estate firm. In the early 1900s, his paternal family emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States. His maternal family came in the United States from Romania. Eric Cantor was raised with the ideals of Conservative Judaism. In 1981, he received his graduate degree from the Collegiate School. In the same year, he enrolled in the George Washington University and during the same time, he started working as an intern for Tom Bliley who was the House Republican of the state of Virginia. Eric Cantor served Tom Bliley as his driver at the presidential election campaign of 1982. He received an awarded as a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity in 1985 and in the same year, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the George Washington University. In 1988, he received his Juris Doctorate degree from William & Mary Law School. In 1989, Cantor received his Master of Science degree from the Columbia University in Real Estate Development. In his early life he spent lots of time looking after his family business in legal work as well as real estate development (Eric Cantor: U.S. Congressman representing the 7th district of Virginia, 2012). Eric Cantor was engaged at Virginia House of Delegates from 1992 to 2001. During his entire career, he worked as a member of various committees like Science and Technology, General Laws, Corporation Insurance and banking, Courts of Justice etc. After 2000, he started focusing on his career as a member of the House of Representative of the United States and this decision regarding his career was fueled by Tom Bliley. He started his career as the ‘Chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare’. Cantor also served in different higher authoritative committees like the House Financial Services Committee, House International Relations Committee as well as the House Ways and Means Committee (Simon, 2008). After playing all these major roles in the political set up of the country, Eric Cantor became a prominent political figure within the political domain of USA. From 2002, he started to be an active member of the political system of the country and used various political as well as social campaigns as an important part of his electoral procedure. In the election of 2003, he defeated Roy Blunt and was selected as the House Chief Deputy Whip. In the following election of 2009, he was elected as the House Minority Whip under the leadership of John Boehner again after defeating Roy Blunt. In the election of 2011, he defeated Steny Hoyer and was elected as the House Majority Leader with Kevin McCarthy as his deputy (Simon, 2008). Eric Cantor is one of the most important ‘Republican members of the House of Representatives’. Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan are the other two important members of the Republican Party. He has been selected as the Majority Leader of the House of Representative of the United States of America for which he has to play the role of floor leader at the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives does not use the term Majority Leader officially; however, the media frequently uses the term. Eric Cantor plays an important role as the subordinate or assistant to the Speaker of the U.S. House. He holds the post of the actual head at the House of Representatives of the majority party. In some of the cases, like other Majority Leaders, Eric Cantor plays a more significant role in the House of Representatives than the speaker of the House (Eric Cantor (R-Va.) House Majority Leader, 112th Congress (since January 2011), 2011). The significance of Cantor can be perceived from studying the roles he plays as the Majority Leader in the House of Representative: Implementing and establishing bills in favor of the negotiation authority belonging to the group of fast track authorities, like the Trade Promotion Authority of the country. Introduction of trade agreements, which are submitted by the honorable President of the country, which depends on the request of the President. These bills and agreements are produced in the House of Representatives as well as in the Senate by Eric Cantor (Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 112th Congress, 2011, pp. 17973-17974). Eric Cantor is considered as one of the most conservative members of the Congress. He has received 100 percent ratings from both the Christian Coalition as well as the Family Research Council. He was also awarded as the standout leader and very close to the right wing of the party by the American Conservative Party. Due to all these reasons he was awarded with a ‘100 percent score on votes in 2007’ (Eric Cantor (R-Va.). In this context, the most important contribution of Eric Cantor in the Congress was the policy of lowering tax rates for families. He is also remembered inside the Congress as the most important member of the party because of his policy of making the country more and more business friendly for domestic as well as international businesses (Eric Cantor on the Issues, n.d.). Legislation and Eric Cantor: There are various legislations authored by Eric Cantor during his membership with the Congress. During the Session 111 of the House of Representatives, he sponsored various legislative bills. In the year 2001, he played an important role in re-introducing the Childrens Lead Screen Intervention Act in the country. This was the beginning of his authorization of legislations. After this time, he introduced several other legislations as Minority Leader as well as the Majority Leader at the House of Representatives (Hit The Ground Running, 2011, pp. 9-11). Among these legislations, some of them are described below: H Res 1194: Eric Cantor implemented this legislation for raising a question concerning the privileges of the U.S. House of Representatives. In this legislation, the role of Eric Cantor was to declare the fact that “the House of Representatives disapproves of the malfeasant manner in which the Democratic Leadership has discharged the duties of their offices”. The bill was passed in the House, but not in the Senate (Bills Sponsored by Eric Cantor in Session 111, 2010). H R 2: Eric Cantor sponsored a bill for revoking the Health Care Law Act that had the property of job killing in the country. In addition, the Patient Protection as well as the Affordable Care Act was also revoked. The role of Eric Cantor in this bill was to restore provisions of U.S. law amended by the Health Care Provisions Act. This bill was passed in the House in 2011 (Bills Sponsored by Eric Cantor in Session 112, 2011). H Res 5: Eric Cantor sponsored the legislation for adopting various rules and regulations for the 112 Congress. These rules were explained by Eric Cantor in different sections, from Sections 2 to 5 at the House. The House passed the bill in 2011 (Bills Sponsored by Eric Cantor in Session 112, 2011). H R 3: This bill was co-sponsored by Eric Cantor for removing taxpayer funding for the Abortion Act of the country. Eric Cantor played an important role in the bill by reducing the violation of abortion provisions in the country. This bill was passed in the House in 2011 (Bills Sponsored by Eric Cantor in Session 112, 2011). H Res 867: Eric Cantor co-sponsored this bill for endorsing or further considering the "Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict" by calling the President or the Secretary of U.S. for opposing unequivocally those endorsements. In this bill, the role of Eric Cantor was reaffirming supports for Israel and citizens of that country defend its rights. The bill was passed in 2009 at the House (Bills Sponsored by Eric Cantor in Session 111, 2010). The actual number of legislations that have been authored by Eric Cantor as the Majority Leader of the House of Representative is almost 60, all of which have been introduced and implemented in respect to various social, cultural and economic contexts of the country. Out of these, nine were voted on the floor of the senate and two became laws. From 2001 onwards he has co-sponsored ‘1046 bills 246 of which were voted on and 61 became laws’. For a representative of the same office, the average was to co-sponsor 1242.633 bills, ‘with 60.9636 becoming law and 195.5044 being voted on’ (US Congressman Eric Cantor, 2007). Different committees served by Eric Cantor and his role in those committees: Eric Cantor has been the most important member of various committees of the country and he has played important roles in these committees, which gave him enormous respect and dignity not only in the country, but also across the world. He is a result-oriented achiever and his main role comprises of extending solutions for the families in America. Apart from his membership at the House of Representatives, he played important roles in other committees including: House Ways and Means Committee: In this committee, he plays the role of the ‘Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare’ and enacted as ‘House Economy Recovery Working Group’. Here he made a significant contribution towards developing the alternative of the Republican Party in the stimulus package of the President. He also crafted wide ranges of solutions for families and small-businesses to get back to the work. He was an innovator in the health care field and struggled to provide better choice for families. His Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 helped the families save for their requirements of health care via the Health Savings Account (Eric Cantor, 2012; Cantor et al., 2010, p. 213). House Financial Services and International Relations Committees: In these two committees, Eric Cantor was appointed in his earlier political career (Stone, 2010, p. 583). The most important role that Eric Cantor played in these committees was receiving the ‘pro-Israel PAC money’ in the congressional election cycle of 2004 (Rample, 2006). Among other committees, the most important ones are Republican National Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee (Cantor et al., 2010, p. 169). These have been the most important governmental committees under which Eric Cantor served during his entire political and social service career. Being the Chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, the leader emphasized upon promotion of a powerful defense of the nation and arranged for inflow of resources for the intelligence and military groups (Eric Cantor, 2012). District, Background and Rhetorical style, notable features, Backbencher, and ambitions: Eric Cantor belongs to the State of Virginia and this is the operating district of the current Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. He has the political background of working under the former House Republican of the state of Virginia, Tom Bliley. He started his political career by serving Bliley in his electoral campaigns. After this, he started to engage himself as the direct member of the House of Delegates of the state of Virginia and thereafter he became an important member of the House of Representative of the country in 2003. The Rhetorical style of Eric Cantor is highly popular in the political domain of the country and has immense influence over the target audience even in cases when the essence of the speech is gibberish (Marciniak, 2011). The most important metaphorical style of Eric Cantor is his simplicity and humbleness in various social, economic and cultural contexts. His enormous success in the political domain of the country along with great popularity in the young age helps him a lot to gain greater popularity in respect to his style of implementing policies and political strategies in the country. He has the unique style of firmly opposing those social, cultural and economic aspects that he finds un-acceptable. For example, inspite of several debates and protests in the country he firmly opposed same-sex marriage. Also in 2007, he strongly voted against discriminations in the job markets of the country in terms of sexual orientation. He is very strict in terms of implementation of effective policies and he also possess the unique characteristic of highly correct forecasts of social and economic issues, like prevalence of financial and economic downturns and effects on the business domain of the country, effects of same-sex marriage on the societal and cultural structure of the country etc. (On the Issues, 2010; Eric Cantor (R-Va.) House Majority Leader, 112th Congress (since January 2011), 2011). Eric Cantor is highly motivated in terms of implementing beneficiary policies and strategies in the country. He also has the unique capability of assessing an issue under consideration for a bill or legislation at a significant level. Due to his abilities and rhetorical style, he is described as the most popular backbencher in the House of Representatives of the United States of America. Cantor along with McCarthy and Ryan formed the Young Guns whose rise was spurred further by the victory of the Republicans in 2010 (Barnes, 2011). Eric Cantor always wanted to be a member of the House of Representatives of the country and in 2003, he reached his aim. Among other aims of Eric Cantor, the most important ones are reducing the power and control of terrorists in the country and also increasing the market efficiency of private businesses in the economic framework of the country such that more job opportunities could be created (On the Issues, 2010). Remarks about Cantor and more details on him: Eric cantor is considered as one of the most popular and efficient young members of the House of Representatives of the country. Eric Cantor has been praised in the country for enjoying his top leadership position at the House and for supporting pro-right American workers for opposing unionism in the country (Right to Work to Capitol Hill: Keep Your Promises Politicians Pledging to Back Right to Work Take Charge of House, 2011, p. 2). He has also praised Barak Obama and George Bush for killing Osama Bin Laden (Fabian, 2011). He is praised by various newspapers and institutions for not getting involved in any kind of lobbying like providing donations for electoral campaigns. He has to travel to different parts of the country for the sake of the party and for raising the popularity of the party. He also has to travel to different countries like Iraq, Iran, United Kingdom, China etc. for various strategic, social, socio-political and economic reasons. Eric Cantor was awarded with the DW-NOMINATE score of 0.65, which implies that Eric Cantor is highly conservative in respect to political aspects and in respect to implementation of various policies and strategies (Joyner, 2009). He is the Majority Leader of the Virginia state of the country which is considered as the 7th Congressional District of the country and according to the Cook’s district Partisan Voting Index (PVI) he has received a score of R+14 (Meet Virginia: 8-3 Democratic in Good Years, 2012). Conclusion: Eric Cantor is considered as one of the most popular Majority Leaders of the House of Representatives of the United States of America. His great success at a very early age has made him one of the most powerful politicians and social figure in the United States. He is aiming at making the country more efficient in terms of economic, social, and cultural aspects by implementing greater amounts of policies in increasing the volume of privatization in the country. He is considered as one of the most important members of the Republican Party and he will possibly be an important political figure of the country in the near future. References: Barnes, F. 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(2011), Cantor praises Obama, Bush for bin Laden killing, The Hill, retrieved on March 7, 2012 from http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/158521-cantor-praises-obama-bush-for-bin-laden-killing Hit The Ground Running, (2011), governmentattic.org, retrieved on March 5, 2012 from http://www.governmentattic.org/4docs/HitGroundRunning2011.pdf Joyner, J. (2009), Republican Party Needs More Votes if it is to Win, Outside The Beltway, retrieved on March 7, 2012 from http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/republican_party_needs_more_votes_if_it_is_to_win/ Meet Virginia: 8-3 Democratic in Good Years, (2012), Daily Kos, retrieved on March 7, 2012 from http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/01/1050593/-Meet-Virginia-8-3-Democratic-in-Good-Years Marciniak, L. (2011), Republican Inside Baseball – Eric Cantor Style, Tell the Truth on them, retrieved on March 8, 2012 from: http://tellthetruthonthem.com/?p=827 On the Issues (2010), retrieved on March 8, 2012 from: http://www.issues2000.org/VA/Eric_Cantor.htm Rample, T. (2006), Commentary: Donor Aid, UNRWA, and the End of a Two-State Solution?, BADIL Resource Center, retrieved on March 7, 2012 from http://www.badil.org/en/al-majdal/item/963-commentarydonor-aid-unrwa-and-the-end-of-a-two-state-solution Right to Work to Capitol Hill: Keep Your Promises Politicians Pledging to Back Right to Work Take Charge of House, (2011), National Right To Work Newsletter, Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 2-7 Stone, K. F. (2010), The Jews of Capitol Hill: A Compendium of Jewish Congressional Members, USA: Scarecrow Press Simon, N. H. (2008). Cantor named No. 2 Republican in U.S. House. The Richmond Times Dispatch, retrieved on March 7, 2012 from http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2008/nov/19/cantgat19_20081119-123005-ar-112885/ US Congressman Eric Cantor, (2007), The Political Guide, retrieved on March 8, 2012 from: http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/House/Virginia/Eric_Cantor/ Read More