Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Majority Leader Cantor Gives Major Speech at AEI

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) will be giving a major policy speech today at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  Although registration is now closed, one can watch it online here.

Rep. Cantor's office has issued a press release with some excerpts of the speech, which is being titled "Making Life Work."

AEI is one of Cantor's favorite think tanks to launch new initiatives and gives various speeches.  House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has also used AEI as a policy platform, such as when he gave this talk in September 2010 on Congressional reform at AEI.

In September 2012 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Marco Rubio used AEI to launch a legislative initiative related to higher education.

At an AEI event last year titled "The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise," Eric Cantor was one of the speakers.

Here is an interview that Nick Schulz, AEI DeWitt Wallace Fellow and Editor-in-Chief of American.com, did with Rep. Cantor in April 2012.

In July 2011, Rep. Cantor held a conference call with AEI President Arthur Brooks on its quarterly National Council call.

In May 2010 it was reported that Rep. Cantor attended AEI's annual Irving Kristol Award ceremony.  The honoree of that event was Gen. David Petraeus.

AEI is not the only think tank platform that Cantor has used.  For example, he gave this May 2010 speech at the Heritage Foundation's President's Club meeting in which he delivered remarks on national security policy.  At that speech, it was reported that he was booed by the crowd when he rebuffed a questioner who suggested President Obama is a "domestic enemy."

Rep. Cantor also gave a January 2011 speech at the Heritage Foundation titled "How Federal Spending Undercuts Economic Freedom."

It was reported today that Rep. Cantor will not attend this week's Heritage Foundation retreat in Baltimore, Maryland.

As Think Tank Watch has previously noted, Rep. Cantor started his own think tank called the National Council for a New America.  That think tank has been in "suspended status" since 2010.

Update: Here is what Washington Post's Dana Milbank had to say about the Cantor event at AEI.