The Tea Party-driven Republican attempt to eliminate NPR’s funding has failed, and Eric Cantor is fuming.

The House on Thursday voted to move forward on legislation without voting on a proposal put forth by Republicans to defund NPR.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the next majority leader, said the vote demonstrates that Democrats “are still not ready to listen” following their sweeping midterm election losses.

“News organizations are free to do, say and operate on their own terms, but that doesn’t mean that taxpayers should be forced to fund them. Today’s vote was just the latest common sense YouCut to cut spending and save taxpayer dollars, and again Democrats showed that they just don’t get it.” …

Cantor indicated that such a vote could have succeeded next year with Republicans in the majority. “If the Democrat majority wants to continue to ignore the will of the people that’s their prerogative, but the new Republican majority will not follow suit next year,” he said.

“Today, good judgment prevailed as Congress rejected a move to assert government control over the content of news,” NPR said in an official statement.