Obama's spending plans called risky

WASHINGTON, June 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's spending plans could become a political liability for fellow Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections, political analysts say.

Obama's plans would require $9 trillion in government borrowing over the next decade, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Republicans are taking aim at the president's economic policies in hopes of making dents in his overwhelming popularity, the newspaper said.

Obama inherited $1.3 trillion annual budget deficit and pushed through $787 billion in short-term spending and tax cuts aimed at jumpstarting the economy, the report said.

"Everything that the White House does concerning this deep recession contains an element of gambling because no one has been here before," said Robert Reich, labor secretary under former President Bill Clinton and a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. "There's no formula that can be applied, and that's why the president's popularity and credibility are vitally important."

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the federal government is on a "completely unsustainable course," the newspaper reported.

"People know we have an overall situation here that doesn't add up," he said.

Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the conservative Cato Institute, said the large federal deficits of the 1980s and early 1990s rallied public support for legislation that constrained government spending.

"There's a potential there that the seemingly out-of-control fiscal situation in Washington could galvanize the public," Edwards said. "The question is whether the Republicans will be smart enough to take advantage of this."