Edited by Jenny Jiang

Transcript of remarks by Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on the fiscal cliff at a press briefing on Nov. 28, 2012: 

Morning. You know, I was heartened to see last week that the President’s chief political advisor, Mr. Plouffe, indicated that Medicare and Medicaid are the main drivers of our deficit.

And I know we have seen this morning also several editorial writers indicate the same that it is important that we put these drivers of the deficit on the table and include them as part of any agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff.

As the Speaker said, we have done our part. We have put revenues on the table. It’s something that we didn’t do 2 years ago during the debt ceiling negotiations.

We still believe that it is most important for us to address the economic situation in this country where so many people are out of work, and that’s why we take the position and believe strongly that increasing marginal rates – income tax rates – is not the way to produce growth and put people back to work.

But we have not seen any good faith effort on the part of this administration to talk about the real problem that we’re trying to fix.

I’m told that Mr. Bowles – some of us will meet with him later today – has said earlier this morning there’s been no serious discussions by the White House on entitlements, on Medicare, and Medicaid. This has to be a part of this agreement or else we just continue to dig the hole deeper asking folks to allow us to kick the can down the road further and that we don’t want to do.

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Learn More:

• WhatTheFolly.com: Transcript: Republican House Speaker John Boehner tax reforms & spending cuts to avert the fiscal cliff
• WhatTheFolly.com: Transcript: Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers says raising taxes on top 2% is a “non-starter”
• GOP.gov: 11/28/12 House Republican Leadership Press Conference
• C-Span.org: Video of House Republican press briefing on the fiscal cliff – Nov. 28, 2012