…in an election year.

ABC News reports:

President Obama has had two major messages for Congress in recent months: Keep the focus on jobs and the economy, and get serious about runaway spending.

His problem now is that they’re starting to listen to him on the second point — at the expense of the first.

In a major shift in congressional politics, Democrats have developed a severe case of sticker shock, just as many of their colleagues press to prime the pump of the economy in time for the mid-term congressional elections.

Now, even popular initiatives with widespread support — notably an extension in unemployment benefits for those who have been out of work for more than a year, plus $50 billion the White House is asking for to help avert state layoffs of teachers and law enforcement officials  are stalled inside Congress.

Democrats are between Barack and a hard place. On the one hand, the only reason they are ever elected is to loot the treasury and put as many people on the government dole as possible. On the other hand, with a national debt of over $13 trillion, there is no more money to give away.

After Obama put his “laser-like focus” on job creation, unemployment soared to 10%, where it has remained since the passage of the porkulus bill. Since then, Obama has also passed the largest entitlement bill in American history – health care. Democrats are in the fast lane, driving the United States off a debt cliff. For Democrats to start opposing spending bills now is laughable. While the new proposed $50 billion giveaway being bandied about in Washington ought to be stopped, there is no way Democrats can claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility in 2010.

In 2006 the Democrats ran against the big spending of George W. Bush and the Republicans. The result of their takeover has been a soaring debt, an unsustainable deficit, and a crippled economy. The Democrats have made it clear that given the power, they will spend the country into ruin. The latest hemming and hawing over spending is cynical political posturing, pure and simple.