Cantor urges GOP to boost funding for science, medical research

Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is urging Republicans in Congress to increase spending on science and medical research to convince Democats to boost spending for defense.

Cantor argues a deal would be possible given Democratic demands that spending ceilings should be eliminated not just on defense spending but on non-defense spending as well.

“The president has consistently said, and the Democrats’ position remains, that if there is going to be an increase in defense spending there must be a commensurate increase in domestic spending,” Cantor told The Huffington Post.

“My position would be, let’s go ahead and commit to long-term creation of value, let’s go in and put all the incremental dollars on the domestic side into scientific and medical research.”

“The hang-up has always been on my side of the aisle,” he said of the GOP’s reluctance to fund science and medicine.

Republicans should think long-term and focus on stimulating the economy through innovation, he said.

“That innovation comes from basic scientific research. That is the message that I would have: If we would start to take a longer-term look to create value long term, rather than always succumb to the siren of short-term gain.”

Cantor acknowledged that raising spending levels for domestic programs without offsets wouldn’t sit well with fiscal hawks. The House GOP’s recent vote on its budget blueprint, however, indicates there might be an appetite for a deal, he suggested.

“Republicans have said, ‘We are not going to spend more money without paying for it,'” Cantor said. “Well, they have already taken the jump now with funding OCO without paying for it. So, I do believe that there is an opening that perhaps there could be some agreement.”

When Congress returns to Washington next week, Republicans are expected to move fast to try and strike a joint conference agreement on their budgets, which keep budget caps in place for next year.

Both Democrats and Republicans have raised the idea of a budget deal later in the year that would mirror the 2013 agreement reached by then-Budget chairmen Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) that allowed for extra spending. 

The White House has said President Obama would only accept increases in defense spending if they’re matched equally by increases in domestic spending.