“The election's over and the American people have spoken,” Senator Warner told NPR’s Melissa Block yesterday in an interview about working with the so-called “Gang of Eight” to avoid the fiscal cliff.

“I think they've said they want us to continue generally in the same direction, but they want us to work more closely together” to avoid automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts that could send the country into a recession.

Senator Warner: I think there are large numbers of senators and I think there are even large numbers of House members who are willing to now - to kind of chuck their Democrat and Republican hats, put the country first.

And any reasonable person who's looked at this issue - business leaders, others - have said you've got to generate some additional revenues, you've got to make our entitlement programs sustainable for the long haul, and you're going to have to cut back on some additional government spending. Those three component parts there is broad-based agreement on.

For more of the interview, click here.