Maine’s two Republican senators have emerged as top voices in the debate over how to stimulate the national economy.

Facing declining spending and rising unemployment rates, President Barack Obama has called on Congress to put together a spending package large enough to tackle the recession but targeted enough to stimulate growth.

In a narrowly divided U.S. Senate, Obama has sought compromise with Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine in hopes of winning their support for a bipartisan solution to the crisis.

Both had one-on-one meetings with Obama on Wednesday to discuss the package.

“That’s just such a rare and unique opportunity to be afforded, particularly at this monumental time for our country,” Snowe said in an interview Thursday. “To have the ability to communicate so freely with the president of the United States and having an exchange of ideas is really a privilege and a rarity.”

Snowe said Obama is the sixth president she has worked with since being elected to Congress.

Collins said she had never met with a president in such an intimate setting, where aides were not even present.

“(We) had a productive and lengthy discussion about the economic stimulus package being considered by the Senate,” she said in a statement. “We spoke about the importance of passing a bipartisan package that would include targeted programs and tax relief to help get the economy moving again.”

Neither Snowe nor Collins was satisfied with the bill that passed the House, which included more than $800 billion in tax cuts and spending.

Snowe worked closely with White House officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, to include $87 billion in Medicaid funding for states, which could result in more than $400 million for Maine. She also encouraged the president to take a close look at the spending proposals attached by the House, going so far as to bring a list of them to her meeting.

“I gave him lists, so he understands that we cannot afford to insert programs and expand programs (that) otherwise should go through the appropriate budget process,” Snowe said.

Collins has been working alongside Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat from Nebraska, to cut the cost of the spending package by about $100 billion, both to make it more appealing to the Senate and to more directly target taxpayer money.

“Trying to forge a bipartisan compromise has been a painstaking, very thorough, very comprehensive process,” Collins said.

Snowe said White House officials and members of Congress have been communicating, but it hasn’t helped the economy – yet.

“There have been a lot of conversations; it’s a question now of, ‘Can it translate into real results?'” she said. “As I said to the president, it’s so important to get this right. We don’t have any money to waste.”

Snowe said Mainers who wrote or called her office were nearly evenly split in their support of the stimulus bill, but nearly all expressed anxiety over how effective it would be, a fact she passed on to Obama.

“They feel demoralized and discouraged,” she said. “We have to restore that confidence. That’s what I told the president; it is really important to scrub this package.”

Though they have been working different channels, Snowe and Collins agree on the principle that only programs or policies that stimulate growth should be part of the bill.

“I’m very leery of having an enormous package that would not be necessary and would just boost the federal deficit,” Collins said.

Snowe said she was optimistic that if done right, the massive spending package could help struggling citizens.

“This package has to be precise and targeted for stimulating the economy and giving incentives to people in businesses to spend money,” Snowe said. “That’s what it’s all about. And if we can’t do that, then we have failed and the American people are going to pay a very heavy price at a very painful time in this country’s history.”