Washington — Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.), the Republican Whip, says the GOP has “won the debate” on the country’s fiscal future but admits that much of America is still “not convinced that we Republicans will be any better.” Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Cantor, focusing on the GOP economic agenda, tied his argument to this belief: “big-government spending means less economic freedom.”

“A smaller Washington will result in a bigger America,” Cantor says. Republicans, he adds, must focus on “private-sector jobs,” tax cuts, and articulating a policy agenda “not unlike Newt Gingrich’s ‘Contract with America’ from 1994.”