House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank butted heads with newly-elected House Minority Whip Eric Cantor on Sunday in a testy exchange on the auto bailout and President-elect Barack Obama's proposed stimulus package.

Appearing on CNN's Late Edition, Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said the GOP can't be the "party of ‘no,'" but would sign on to Obama's plan, which reports suggest will be an investment of between $600 billion and a trillion dollars in the nation's infrastructure, workforce, energy sector and health care and education systems. Republicans in Congress, he said, will propose alternative job creating solutions.

Frank responded that Republicans' not being the "party of ‘no'" would be a welcome change.

"If they are, the Republicans in Congress, going to be cooperating with the president-elect, that will be a refreshing change because they have been the party of ‘no' to George Bush," Frank, a Newton Democrat, said. "One of the things that ought to be made clear, is that one of the problems we've had in trying to make public policy in Washington in this last year, has been the repudiation of George Bush by the Republican Party."

In an exchange that got increasingly heated, Cantor refused to support Bush's recent decision to extend more than $17 billion in loans to U.S. automakers . Cantor said Bush's proposal doesn't adequately protect taxpayers and called for concessions to be made by the workers' unions first.

"Everyone knows that the wage rates of the domestic manufacturers fair exceed that of their foreign competitors," he said. "We know what we need to do in order to put these companies in a position so they can compete. Why is it impossible for us to get the concessions now."

Frank sharply rebuked Cantor for the remark and said that under Bush's proposal, the U.S. government is the first to get repaid for the loans and, therefore, the taxpayers are protected.

"We are heavily collateralized on this," Frank said.

"Eric Cantor just gave an example, I think, of what people don't like about us," Frank added. "Mainly, you said, ‘Do you disagree with the president?' He said, ‘No,' whereupon he proceeded to denounce what the president is doing. If what he said was agreement, I'd really like to be here when he disagrees."

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