In 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill) took to the floor of the United States Senate to explain his opposition to raising the national debt ceiling yet again:

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.

Indeed, Americans do deserve better. They deserve a fiscally-responsible government that doesn’t counter a spending problem with more debt increases and tax hikes. Americans deserve a government that responds to a spending problem by scaling-back its spending habits.

Then-Senator Barack Obama was right. Americans deserve better than debt ceiling increases. And he was right that debt ceiling increases are a sign of failed leadership.

But what happened to Barack Obama between 2006 and 2011? Today’s Barack Obama has vowed to veto any legislation that balances the budget. Today’s President Obama has demanded either a clean debt ceiling increase or one with tax hikes on ordinary Americans.

Today’s Barack Obama would get an earful from 2006′s Barack Obama. He’d be told that this outcome has demonstrated a failure of leadership. He’d be told that Americans deserve better than another debt ceiling increase. He’d be told that more borrowing leaves America vulnerable. That it weakens us both domestically and internationally.

2006 Barack Obama would side with the Republicans — and most Americans — in the debt ceiling debate. Today’s Barack Obama, more concerned about his reelection than America’s future, sides with the tax-and-spend liberals who demand America be pushed further into debt.