Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has a delicate balancing act ahead of her in picking well-qualified Members who can also engage the wider Caucus for the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction.
That view was driven home by a blistering July statement from Progressive Caucus Co-Chairman Raúl Grijalva about the debt deal, in which the Arizona Democrat said the deal “trades people’s livelihoods for the votes of a few unappeasable right-wing radicals.”
Moderate Democrats also sent a letter to leadership asking that voices dedicated to long-term deficit reform be included in the committee.
“There hasn’t really been one Member that everyone has coalesced around, but we are looking for someone with a commitment to comprehensive reform,” a senior Democratic aide said.
But a Democratic leadership aide noted that Blue Dogs have not been scrambling to be on the committee, and nor should they, given many may have to sell a tough deal in far-from-safe political districts.
A man from Kentucky attends a Tea Party Patriots rally on the West Front of the Capitol to protest the IRS' targeting of conservative political groups.
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