Ohio Senator Rob Portman says he tried to foster a bipartisan deal that would cut 1.2 trillion dollars from the federal budget and avoid mandatory across the board cuts.
Portman is a Republican member of the supercommittee of six congressional Republicans and six Democrats... that yesterday conceded they could not reach a compromise on debt reduction.
The Plain Dealer quotes the Senator as saying he tried every angle, representatives of the two parties couldn't bridge their disagreements.
Portman says he supports across-the-board federal budget cuts, but he warns a 10 percent cut to the military threaten national defense.
{PORTMAN: "We are gutting our military at a time when we're fighting a couple of wars and continue to have this terrorist threat. So, should defense spending be on the table for reductions, yes, it should. There are ways to save money at the Department of Defense but this is too much and too quick."}
Senator Sherrod Brown says he's disappointed an agreement wasn't reached.
"Ten years ago we got to a balanced budget, had the biggest surplus in American history in 2001. And that was squanered because of bad decisions by Washington politicians."}
Brown says he doesn't want to see those bad decisions exacerbated by more bad decisions.