WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Senator Angus S. King, Jr. (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after the President released his Fiscal Year 2014 Budget:

“It’s encouraging the President has offered a budget that demonstrates his seriousness and commitment to reaching a grand bargain. As we know, the Senate has produced a budget blueprint, which I helped craft, and the House has also produced its own dramatically different budget plan. The time has come for us to sit down, to reconcile these differences, and to create a final budget that promotes job creation and addresses our nation’s long-term fiscal health – because we can no longer afford to lurch from one budget crisis to the next.

“In that pursuit, everything must be on the table for consideration and we must approach the process earnestly and in good faith. Americans have seen the results of intractable political positions and they are fed up with gridlock. They expect us, as their elected representatives, to solve the problems facing our nation and we have an opportunity now to demonstrate that we still can. That is how I will approach the process and I urge my colleagues to join me.”

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