Mazie Hirono in Reuters

On Homeland Security: Sensible compromise needed on $50 billion military cut

Hirono said Congress was right to raise the debt ceiling and needs to reach sensible compromise to avoid the deep cuts planned but said Republicans are holding things up because they're not willing to allow taxes to go up for the wealthiest Americans. "We now have a Congress where people are perfectly fine sending our country over the economic cliff," Hirono said. Hirono concluded that nobody's talking about weakening national defense, but the Tea Party has said the US should worry more about itself than other countries.