Arlen Specter: “No. We are discussing the issue of schoolteachers. Last year, in the middle of the night, there was a compromise which…”

“No. We are discussing the issue of schoolteachers. Last year, in the middle of the night, there was a compromise which went around this Senator, the chairman of the subcommittee, and I am not prepared to take that unacceptable language. But it is a high-handed demand. We are not going to retreat from last year's language on a program the President thinks is important. We need to go back on track, and that is to follow the Constitution and submit our bills to the President. The Congress has the primary authority and responsibility for assessing priorities. We have the purse strings, it says in the Constitution. But that is not the way it is functioning today. When the President comes to Capitol Hill and issues a dictatorial statement that he is not going to sign continuing resolutions for longer than a day, fine, let him stay in town. It will be quite a change for the President's schedule if he stays in town to sign these continuing resolutions day in and day out. It is time the Congress stopped being blamed for everything. If the American people understood where we stand on my bill, that the President got the full sum he asked for, there is a difference in priorities.”