Meet the Press

Republican Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) and Dr. Christine Romer, chair of Obama's White House Council on Economic Advisers, shadowboxed on whether the "fundamentals of the economy are strong," to borrow the words of Obama's former opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Topics during Romer's conversation with MTP host David Gregory
roamed from her bold prediction that we'll start to see the light at the end of the recession tunnel in the second half of the year (she's "not a fortune teller" but says her projection is in line with private economic forecasts) to whether we're going to need a second stimulus (siding with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Romer thinks talk of another package is premature).

Next up was Cantor, one of the GOP's primary bulldogs against the White House. Peppering his answers with powerful stats about how bad the current economy really is (e.g. in the time it took you to read this last sentence, another job was lost). He thinks the most important step forward is to get the flow of credit rolling again, both by private investments and restoring consumer confidence. What won't help? Spending, especially on "pork barrel" earmarks like a train between the two happiest places on earth and R&D to reduce pig odor.

Cantor stumbled, though, when Gregory pressed him on how many earmarks he himself has voted for over his career in Congress -- a figure Democrats have placed in the neighborhood of 46,000. He conceded that perhaps, yes, he voted for that pork, but shot back that he and Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) have repeatedly called for a moratorium on the practice.

Cantor didn't really shed any new or innovative light on the GOP's game plan. He assured viewers that Republican critics of Obama's economic policies will soon come up with a counter plan ("David, David, the Republicans will have a plan.") and said that everyone shares the blame (just a little bit) for the current financial failure. Thanks, captain obvious?

State of the Union

Former Vice President Dick Cheney joined CNN's John King to defend the Bush years and warn of the dangers lurking in the era of Obama.

Cheney stood by not seeing any red flags leading up to the current economic crisis. When pressed with the numbers -- Bush entered the White House with a $128 billion stimulus, left with $1.3 trillion in debt and saw the number of Americans in poverty and uninsured jump between 4 and 5 million each -- he countered with the argument that 9/11 took precedent over all other domestic policies during Bush's first term and beyond. On the topic of Iraq. Cheney stood by the company line that the now nearly six-year war has paid off, even if the intelligence leading up to the invasion didn't prove to be true.  

One thing that didn't come up? As Gawker noted earlier today, King passed over an opportunity to probe Cheney on Seymour Hersh's recent article alleging that the vice president oversaw a death squad assassination team.

This Week

Senior economic adviser Larry Summers and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell went to bat for their respective parties with George Stephonopolis on ABC's "This Week."

Summers stayed on message with the cautious-optimism that has characterized Obama's dealing with the ecnomy. "It's going to take time," he repeated yet again. Summers dismissed Times columnist Paul Krugman's recent criticism of the president's plans, but said he wanted to leave the actual outlining of that plan to the president and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. And as for the Republican critcisms? Bring it on, Summers said:

"We'd love to see Senator McConnell's concrete alternatives that gets closer to a balanced budget. The situtation the president inherited of nearly $1 trillion deficits, before he did anything, came at a time -- came at a time when it was a Republican president and a Republican Congress that were making the decisions."

Next up was McConnell, who said the administration was using the crisis as an excuse to launch an "explosion" of spending.

"They're taking advantage of a crisis in order to do things that had nothing to do with getting us into the crisis in the first place. They want to have a massive expansion of health care. An energy tax, which many people are now calling a light switch tax, of another $600 billion. It's sort of a bait-and-switch."

McConnell dismissed the DNC's characterization of the GOP as the "Party of 'No," and promised that Republicans would offer a number of amendments to the Democrats' proposed budget. But he stopped short of promising a comprehensive Republican counter plan to the Democratic proposal.

One thing pundits and pols on both side of the aisle agreed on this week? AIG. Both Summers and McConnell, as well as a host of other talkshow guests, called the firm's decision to dole out big bonuses after taking federal bailout cash "outrageous."