Cantor: Lines are drawn along "fiscal cliff"

Last Updated 8:18 a.m. ET

(CBS News) NEW YORK - Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the number two Republican in the House, said that the battle lines have been drawn in the run-up to across-the-board government spending cuts due to take effect in January, with the outcome to be determined by this November's election.

The Bush-era tax cuts, which were extended through the end of 2012, are due to expire. Failure by Congress to reach a "grand bargain" that would reduce the deficit means across-the-board spending cuts are set to go in effect - the so-called "fiscal cliff."

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On Wednesday the Senate passed a procedural vote on a Democratic proposal to extend the tax cuts for all except the highest income earners.

Referring to the Senate bill as "Barack Obama's tax hike proposal," Cantor said the House will vote next week on a Republican measure to extend tax cuts that would include the wealthiest Americans.

"In the House, we intend next week to bring up a bill that will ensure that taxes don't go up on anybody," Cantor said. "Those lines have been drawn."

Cantor promised that should he win the White House, Mitt Romney would bring "a very pro-growth economic plan for this country to help the small businesses that are job creators."

"Yeah, there's a lot of discussion about what the election will mean and its impact," Cantor said.

When asked if a "grand bargain" would be possible if President Obama is re-elected, Cantor demurred, saying he was confident Romney would win in November.

"But as we know, the operation of the law will bring about automatic tax hikes, which is why it's so important that Mitt Romney be elected. Now is not the time to raise taxes on working families or small businesses, and especially given the fact that Washington has not been able to control its spending. The more you tax folks, take money out of their pockets and let Washington spend it, the more you're digging the hole deeper, which is why we need to get this straight and resolve the underlying problem," adding that he thinks a resolution will be reached.

To watch Jan Crawford report on Romney's U.K. reception click on the video player below.

On other campaign matters, Cantor was asked about Romney's reception in the U.K. this week, after a flurry of Fleet Street headlines criticizing the Republican for mis-steps during his visit - from publicly revealing his meeting with the head of British intelligence, to forgetting the name of Labour Party head Ed Milliband (who was standing next to him), to criticizing the organization of the London Games. Romney also mentioned how much he enjoyed seeing "the backside of 10 Downing Street."

The campaign also tried to tamp down a Daily Telegraph report of a Romney "adviser" saying the Republican would be better than Mr. Obama at maintaining the "special relationship" between the United States and Britain because of the Republican's shared "Anglo-Saxon heritage."

The Sun tabloid dubbed Romney "Mitt the Twit."

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When asked if he were worried about what was happening in England and the press Romney was getting, Cantor replied, "No, I'm really not. I think the international headlines are one thing. Barack Obama started his campaign and had great international headlines, and I think what we saw there is some of the allies have turned on him."

Cantor deflected a question by Rose about whether the president's attacks on Romney's record at Bain Capital were hurting the GOP candidate.

"I think this is the only thing that the Obama campaign can do because they can't run on the record of the president," Cantor said. "This is an Obama economy. I think too many people are hurting right now and there's really no other place for them to go."