PORTLAND (AP) – Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine provided crucial support for President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package, but they’re less enthusiastic about his first budget proposal.

Snowe says the president and Congress “have a fundamental obligation to do more to rein in government spending and deficits.” She says Obama’s proposal “falls woefully short of these objectives.”

Collins says Obama’s budget warrants serious consideration but she says it “raises many questions, particularly about the enormous growth in the public debt.”

Obama’s first budget blueprint calls for a $3.6 trillion spending package for next year and it puts the deficit for this year at $1.75 trillion.


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