TPM
"I'm wary of the suggestion of an infrastructure bank," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) told reporters at a roundtable lunch hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "I am one who agrees with the notion that an infrastructure bank is almost like creating a Fanny and Freddie for roads and bridges."
Cantor's simply wrong here. The primary differences between Fannie and Freddie, on one hand, and an infrastructure bank, on the other, is that the mortgage giants are funding private-sector purchases (home ownership) while the infrastructure bank would be used primarily to support public property - roads, bridges, rail, and airports - that serves the public interest and not merely private gain.
This highlights a fundamental error that Republicans have made for a generation, but seemingly have not understood. Spending tax dollars on corporate welfare and funding private enterprise with government grants, the Republicans have repeatedly shifted wealth into the hands of the wealthy and have failed to build the middle class.
The infrastructure bank idea was proposed by President Obama in the midst of the debt crisis deal, so it's clear that Cantor's ignorance is willful. He knows what it is, and he's dissembling by making a false comparison. He should be called out for this, and should be voted out of office in November 2012.