House Majority Leader Eric Cantor claims to be soldiering on with a new set of jobs bills, necessary because the GOP has become defined by their attention to culture war issues rather than what brought them to the House majority. But these plans are either small beer or just another manifestation of the “tax cuts forever” ideology that’s so fashionable in Washington.

The House passed a watered-down version of the STOCK Act, the bill that would ban insider trading among members of Congress as the Office of Congressional Ethics investigates Rep. Spence Bachus for insider trading.

When the Senate passed the STOCK Act, the bill that bans insider trading on non-public information picked up in Congress (yes, that’s not against the law right now) along with some other ethics reforms, I thought that could be a vehicle that would move expeditiously through the House. However, even though Majority Leader Eric Cantor made promises that the STOCK Act would get a vote this week, instead what has happened is a free-for-all, with lobbyists gutting the bill at Cantor’s behest.

The STOCK Act was a media-driven bill that politicians felt they could not resist after 60 Minutes ran a (somewhat flawed) exposé on the insider trading activities of members of Congress. Once a must-pass bill like that gets into circulation, it’s going to become an attractive target for messaging amendments where members try to hitch a ride with their pet issues. And because Congress is held in low public esteem, the best of these amendments would deal with the same kind of ethics issues.

In case you weren’t paying attention during the debate about the extension of the Bush tax cuts last year, members of Congress are again working on a deal to clearly show there is no such thing as a deficit hawk.

I found last night’s 60 Minutes story on insider trading in Congress to be uneven, partially underwhelming and at times outright misleading. That Congress has access to insider information and can trade on that information is true, but some of the examples CBS cited were weak or unconvincing.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will be giving a speech on income inequality at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Friday between 12:15 and 1:00 pm.

And several Chicago area Occupy groups will greet him.

Eric Cantor chickened out of a public appearance at the Wharton School, afraid to share his views with the 99% he so assiduously screws over. Fortunately his speech was given to The Daily Pennsylvanian, who shared it here. No wonder Eric wanted to say this crap to a selected audience that wouldn’t laugh out loud, complying with the social rule that speakers should be given that small measure of respect.

Eric Cantor, staunch protector of the 1 percent and champion for that portion of the 99 percent duped into protecting the 1 Percent, but ever fearful of the mob, startled a disbelieving Beltway a few days ago by announcing that income and wealth inequality were real problems and that the GOP should do something about that.

But Mr. Cantor bugged out.

Sure, you’d think the 99 percent would be get a little higher support, but there’s a lot of conservatives self-loathing out there. In any case, it could be a lot worse, it is among the most popular political movements in the country, unlike the least popular, tea partiers