SOME DEMS WORRY - AT 7:22 A.M. ET:  Not all Senate Democrats are sold on the president's economic plans.  Moderate Dems are starting to worry about the costs, and they often come from states where reelection can be tough.  The Politico reports:

Moderate and conservative Democrats in the Senate are starting to choke over the massive spending and tax increases in President Barack Obama’s budget plans and have begun plotting to increase their influence over the agenda of a president who is turning out to be much more liberal than they are.

A group of 14 Senate Democrats and one independent huddled behind closed doors on Tuesday, discussing how centrists in that chamber can assert more leverage on the major policy debates that will dominate this Congress.

Afterward, some in attendance made plain that they are getting jitters over the cost and expansive reach of Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget proposal.

COMMENT:  This is a major story.  Fourteen Democrats are almost a quarter of all the Dems in the Senate.  If they start defecting from the Obama plan, they can have a decisive influence.  The numbers don't lie.

March 4, 2009