Kaine, Warner applaud bipartisan budget deal

U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner applauded the bipartisan effort to reach a budget and debt-ceiling deal that appears headed toward passage in Congress later today.

“This is what America wants us to do,” Kaine said. “They want us to work together in the Senate – Democrat and Republican. They want us to work together – Senate and House – to stop the foolish shutdown that has needlessly hurt individuals, communities and our prestige.”

Kaine said that with a divided Congress, the only way to find agreement and move forward is to listen to each other and find bipartisan compromise, rather than having one side dictate the terms.

“Those who thought they could dictate terms were wrong,” Kaine said. “Those who thought they could threaten default were wrong.”

Warner paraphrased Charles Dickens, saying “in a way ‘It may the best of times and the worst of times.’ It may be the best of times because over the last couple of days we’ve seen leaders of the Senate, Leader Reid and Leader McConnell, basically say, ‘Let’s put away some of the disputes and end this crisis.’ I want to compliment their work and the work of all the bipartisan efforts that have been going on to put this to an end,” Warner said.

“So in a certain sense perhaps it is the best of times. Yes, we’re about to finally do our job. We’re about to actually reopen the government. Put our workforce back to work. And by a whisker, we’re avoiding default and financial calamity that would ensue if we continued down that path. But it’s also the worst of times in that once again we took this conversation to the 11th hour. We have inflicted damage on our economy and our reputation. We have – and not by a Republican or Democrat skirmish, but by a small group of a ‘our-way-or-the-highway’ crowd — we have violated the first principle of governing, which says: ‘First, do no harm,'” Warner said.