On the first anniversary of America’s first-ever credit rating downgrade, Senator Warner told CNN’s Erin Burnett that he continues to work within the Senate to design a broad, bipartisan roadmap to reduce the national debt. Senator Warner helped lead the so-called Gang of Six last year, and he and his colleagues now are working toward draft legislation that could be considered by Congress immediately after the November elections.

Erin asked Senator Warner about potential sequester cuts to military spending next January – intentionally painful cuts that were supposed to the compel the so-called supercommittee to reach a deal last fall. Senator Warner acknowledges those deep Pentagon budget cuts would hit Virginia hard:

“We need to make sure that America keeps the strongest defense in the world. But as the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral [Mike] Mullen, has said, ‘The biggest threat to our national security is not terrorism. It’s this debt and deficit.’”