The big spenders still haven’t gotten the message.

In the run-up to our grand nation’s birthday, money, including a lot we don’t even have, was burning a hole in the pocket of these people.

The first costly mission was a stimulus package (yep, another one of those sprees) designed to help states pay for Medicaid programs and avoid teacher layoffs. It would have tipped the scales around $50 billion, but Democrats pushing the idea weren’t able to come up with enough votes to push it through. Still, you can bet we haven’t heard the last of that.

And it probably wouldn’t help to point out that states could probably afford teacher salaries and Medicaid spending if there weren’t so many federal mandates and guidelines that drive expenses through the roof.

Anyway, when that idea was stalled, the free spenders decided to celebrate the Fourth by pushing through a bill that would extend unemployment benefits for 1.3 million laid-off workers. 

Without an extension, every week a new 200,000 of the nearly 7 million people who have been without a job for at least six months will lose their unemployment benefits. About 1.3 million have already lost benefits since the last extension ran out at the end of May, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said.

Of course, that sounds like a noble cause. And the spending crowd could probably sell it back home as a compassionate attempt to ease the pain of all those who lost jobs due to recent economic upheaval.

But that, too, fell short. Not quite enough votes, due in part to the recent death of Sen. Robert Byrd. This deal, also, is likely to be back when Byrd’s replacement is appointed by West Virginia’s Democratic governor.

But we probably should take these developments as a good sign. It means that many Republicans and some Democrats are fretting about adding to the growing national debt.

"No one’s disputing the value of these very important programs," said Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass. "But we also have to have tough choices and we also need to live within our means."

Denied the chance to trumpet a newly minted program as another miracle cure to the ailing economy. President Obama did get a pre-birthday “gift” announcement done on the eve of the Fourth of July.

He announced in his weekly radio and online address that $2 billion from the previous $862 billion stimulus will be devoted to developing two new solar plants. The prime selling point is that they will create thousands of jobs and increase the use of renewable energy resources.

And so, just in time for our celebration of a country founded on, among other things, the fight against taxation without representation, spending of money we don’t even have was accomplished.

Maybe we need to let the spending crowd in Washington know that we don't need these "gifts" that keep on giving more debt. A little restraint would be fine. Really.