Republican leader Eric Cantor rejects Obama's "all or nothing" approach to creating jobs
UPDATED 10:08 p.m. ET
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said he may go along with some of President Obama's proposals to bring down high unemployment outlined in his speech to Congress Thursday, but not all of them.
"We reject the all or nothing approach that he took tonight," Cantor told CBS News in an interview after the high profile remarks.
Urging Congress to "stop the political circus," Mr. Obama called for lawmakers on Capitol Hill to pass a a $447 billion package of spending initiatives and tax cuts designed to jump-start the stalling economy.
"The people of this country work hard to meet their responsibilities. The question tonight is whether we'll meet ours," Mr. Obama said in a fiery speech before a rare joint session of Congress. "The question is whether, in the face of an ongoing national crisis, we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy."
Cantor told CBS News Scott Pelley that he and his fellow Republicans would be open to passing some of those initiatives.
"As Majority Leader, I'd like to see us peel off the things that we can agree on together and put those in motion across the board as soon as possible so that we can deliver results for the people that put us here so we can see an economy start to grow again and people get back to work," Cantor said.
Asked what specifics the House Republicans would agree to, the Virginia Republican said he would endorse tax breaks for small businesses.
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"Specifically in the area of small business tax relief. We know and the president recognizes that it is the small businesses that are struggling most. We also know that the small businesses are the job engines of our economy," Cantor said.
"They are the ones that we need so desperately to get back into the game. We need entrepreneurs to begin to put capital to work again. And any incentive that we can provide these small business men and women through tax relief, we should go ahead and do that as quickly as possible," he added.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a leading contender for the Republican nomination to challenge Mr. Obama in next year's general election, said the president's proposal is backwards
"President Obama's call for nearly a half-trillion dollars in more government stimulus when America has more than $14 trillion in debt is guided by his mistaken belief that we can spend our way to prosperity," Perry said, "America needs jobs, smaller government, less spending and a president with the courage to offer more than yet another speech."
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And Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts seeking the Republican nomination for president, unveiled a new web video blasting Mr. Obama' record on job creation.
In the slick 53 second web video, the Romney campaign noted that 2 million jobs have been lost in the United States since Mr. Obama took office 961 days ago and 25 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or stopped looking for work.
At the end of the video, released less than an hour after the conclusion of his remarks, a clip of Mr. Obama asking Congress to pass a plan "right away" to create jobs is shown. The video then cuts to a graphic proclaiming that he is 960 days "too late."