Arlen Specter: “I have found great concern about the inability, the failure, of the negotiators to come to an agreement on the budget…”

“I have found great concern about the inability, the failure, of the negotiators to come to an agreement on the budget talks. I urge the negotiators to continue to talk. As I have reviewed the details as to what has been undertaken, talking to my colleagues in the Senate and the House, talking to administration officials, it is my view that the parties are not too far apart. I believe that the absence of an agreement is a lose-lose situation for everyone in Washington. There is no real opportunity, as I see it, for political advantage, and the American people watch what goes on in Washington, DC, with amazement and frequently revulsion at our failure to come to some terms. I go back to a wise statement made by the former distinguished Senator from Maine, Margaret Chase Smith, who said, 'We have to distinguish between the compromise of principle and the principle of compromise,' and when we are talking about the budget issues, we are talking really about compromising mostly on a dollars-and-cents basis.”