Button widths vs. the text within

Hi All!

Can anyone explain to me why the padding around the text within a form 
button increases as the text length increases?  I have two buttons, one 
with the words "Submit Query" and another with "Compare Set to Company" and 
the "Compare" button has blank space before and after the words equal to 
almost 2/3 the width of the "Submit" button.

This happens in both IE5 and NN4.5 and it looks silly in both!

Thanks in advance,
Eric

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