The Hill News

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Wednesday that despite recent victories, conservatives should not think they've won the fight with Democrats on tax cuts.

“I wouldn't be so sure and rest on our laurels that we have won any battle,” Cantor said in response to a question after a speech at the Heritage Foundation.

Republicans reached a deal with President Obama in December that extended all of the Bush-era tax cuts for two years. Under the agreement, Obama had to concede to an extension of Bush-era tax rates for the rich.

Cantor explained that Republicans have yet to accomplish a permanent reduction of tax rates, however. And he noted that Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night “hinted” at a different agenda on tax rates to that of Republicans.

Obama said that the country couldn't afford to permanently cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and also reduce the country’s deficit.

Cantor! ’s remarks suggest that Republican members of Congress will continue to push for an extension of the Bush tax cuts when they expire in 2012, which also happens to be an election year.

Cantor said that Obama's speech suggested that the left and the right still don't agree on whether taxes should cultivate "equal outcomes" or "equally opportunity."

“We want to focus on how to foster an environment where risk takers want to put capital to work and create jobs,” Cantor said. “We've not yet done that because in the speech last night you heard, again, some rhetoric that may hint at the left's insistence on equal outcomes when we believe in equal opportunity, and I think that is a battle yet to be won.”