By Lori Montgomery Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 19, 2010

With voters up in arms over the mounting federal debt, congressional Democrats are growing increasingly queasy about adding to the nation’s tab, with some arguing that additional spending to prop up the economy and help the unemployed should be paid for or abandoned.

“This is getting to be Judgment Day on the spending issue,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Tuesday. “I’ve come to the conclusion that voters are saying now that just throwing money at various kinds of issues — virtually all of which are deserving — isn’t good enough.”

Wyden spoke after emerging from a meeting where Senate Democrats discussed two must-pass spending packages that Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has vowed to bring to a vote before the Memorial Day recess. The larger measure would extend a variety of expired tax cuts, unemployment benefits and aid to cash-strapped state governments while preventing a big pay cut from taking effect at the end of the month for doctors who see Medicare patients. The other would finance additional troops for the war in Afghanistan and provide more money for disaster relief.

Together, the two measures are expected to cost more than $250 billion, aides said, much of it financed with borrowed funds. Meanwhile, the Obama administration and some liberal Democrats are urging lawmakers to throw in an additional $23 billion to help state education officials prevent the layoffs of as many as 300,000 public school teachers, a grim possibility that would crowd classrooms nationwide while adding to the swollen ranks of the unemployed.

Few Democrats argue that the money is not needed. But with this year’s budget deficit already forecast to break a record, and Republicans accusing Democrats of rampant overspending in advance of this fall’s midterm elections, many lawmakers are reexamining their priorities and asking their leaders to come up with a plan to cover the cost.

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