Just before the House adjourned, Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR) voted against the Congressional Black Caucus budget, the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget, the House Democratic budget, the Republican Study Committee Budget, and the House GOP Budget — the only one of the five options on the table that passed.
That gives Republicans an opening to attack him for refusing to cut spending without mentioning that their own budget does extremely unpopular things — like reducing deficits over the course of decades by unloading health care costs on to seniors.
It’s a strange predicament for both Ross and for the NRCC, which, of course, can’t defend its own members’ plan. But because Democrats have ceded the point that the greatest priority for Congress right now is to cut spending, people like Ross — who didn’t walk the walk when it came time to vote — are open to attack anyhow. There’s no good out for conservative Democrats under the circumstances, if they can’t align with either party. And that illustrates a problem with the Blue Dogs’ political strategy, particularly given their professed concerns about deficits and debt.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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