In an earlier post, Joe
noted that Rep. Eric Cantor has said that military spending and
entitlement cuts should be “on the table.” Yet it’s important to
caution that when a politician says something is on the table it’s
often just another way to dodge a question since it doesn’t commit
him to anything — this is especially true if the lawmaker, like
Cantor, puts “everything on the table.” Thus, if it turns out that
Cantor doesn’t support actual cuts, he isn’t breaking any promise
— they could have still been theoretically “on the table” at some
point. In reality, the only way I’d take Cantor seriously would be
if he were to propose specific cuts.
That said, it is a noteworthy development for Cantor to even say
that defense spending is on the table. That’s something that Mitch
Daniels and Tom Coburn have said, and it puts all of them at odds
with those national security conservatives who are protective of
defense spending. This will be one of the key debates conservatives
will be having in the coming years.
