by Alex M. Parker

Ahead of the 2012 election Republicans are turning to hot issues

Congress' week-long recess gave both sides a rest from the heated rhetoric over the budget, while offering Republicansa chance to shift their focus to the main issue on voters' minds -- jobs. With an eye toward the 2012 elections, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor used the break to tout the GOP position that job creation will come only from scaling back government and reducing its role in the private sector. Although most of the ideas he addressed in a speech have long been at the top of the party's talking points, he also signaled that tax and immigration reform will likely soon play a bigger role in the discussion.

While the Republican base has been furious about the ballooning federal deficit, the country as a whole remains more anxious about the nation's economy. According to Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, the distinction between the two issues didn't matter so much in the 2010 midterm elections, when the GOP could just focus on opposing the Obama administration. But as the 2012 elections near, the Republicans are looking to attract more independent and moderate voters. "It's a balancing act," Sabato says. "They have to keep the base happy with one issue, and the general public happy with another."

Asserting that Washington was "smothering" job growth, Cantor touched on familiar Republican themes during a speech in California on March 21. He called for scaling back regulations brought on by the new healthcareand financial reform laws, revising the corporate tax code and lowering rates, and allowing more highly skilled foreign workers into the country.

Cantor also pushed for a tax holiday for corporations to bring overseas profits to the United States at a reduced tax rate, saying this would bring home $1.2 trillion in investments. The majority leader also urged increasing the cap on immigration visas for highly skilled workers as a way to boost the productivity of American firms.

The so-called repatriation tax holiday for overseas profits has already sparked a scuffle with the Obama administration, which so far has been opposed to the idea. Michael Mundaca, assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, blasted the idea in a blog post on the department's website, saying a similar tax holiday in 2004 didn't work, and cost taxpayers billions. He also said another holiday could end up costing taxpayers even more if it led corporations to move more of their profits overseas, in hopes that Congress would pass yet another holiday down the road.

Increasing the limit on visas for highly skilled workers is less controversial, but still likely to produce a backlash from those who feel it would take jobs away from Americans. Advocates of raising the cap, including the American Immigration Lawyers Association and many tech firms, say the current restriction inhibits businesses' ability to expand. A House Judiciary subcommittee will hold hearings on the issue on Thursday..

Democrats immediately mocked the Republican focus on jobs, calling it too little, too late.

"House Republicans must be realizing they have some catching-up to do on the jobs issue," New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said in a statement, repeating a familiar Democratic theme that Republicans have focused too much on cutting federal spending -- at the expense of job creation.

 

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GOP Shifts Focus to Jobs | Politics

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