We’re happy to see President Obama getting tough with Congressional Republicans who are trying to sabotage the stimulus and recovery bill and bring even greater ruin on the economy. Since Mr. Obama campaigned on the promise of bipartisanship, we hope he will also bring his hammer down on shortsighted Democrats who are threatening their own brand of havoc.

Mr. Obama had it exactly right on Thursday when he warned against reducing “the scale and the scope” of the economic measure. If anything, the government should be more ambitious in its spending on economic stimulus, recovery and growth.

Unhappily, there are many Republicans who have not learned the lesson of this last campaign  that Americans rejected their arguments that government is the enemy and tax cuts answer all economic questions.

It would be highly irresponsible for Congress to accept the Republicans’ wrongheaded calls to cut back on the stimulus portions of the economic package, and shortchange longer-term spending on health care, schools and infrastructure. We applauded Mr. Obama when he said, “The time for action is now because we know that if we do not act, a bad situation will become dramatically worse. Crisis could turn into catastrophe.”