As Republicans move closer to caving on the fiscal cliff, Democrats are reportedly upping the ante, seeking to use what should have been a fight about budget cuts to push even more reckless spending. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer laid out the case for elevated spending yesterday, even as the country moved another day closer to both the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling: “It is clear that the economy is not moving as quickly as we would like. It’s not a zero-sum game. We need to continue to invest in growing the economy.”

Senate Democrat staffers say that demands for more spending are “100 percent serious,” and that even if they’re stripped now, Democrats will want more spending later. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) says that more spending must be part of a fiscal cliff package. “The public cares way more about jobs than they do what we do on this fiscal stuff,” he blurted.

Only Democrats could turn a discussion about how we spend too much money into a discussion on how we can spend more. And only Republicans could be incompetent enough not to blast them for it publicly.