As Congress continues to struggle over the spending cuts and tax increases necessary to avoid the looming fiscal cliff, the former Governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman, argues that decisions on the fiscal cliff could have a surprising impact on national security. Whitman, President of the Whitman Strategy Group, joins "Starting Point" Wednesday to take a closer look at how national security could be hurt by the fiscal cliff if Congress fails to act.

Whitman argues that after Sandy it has become increasingly clear how infrastructure affects national security. "It makes it even more important that our representatives here in Washington actually step up and say – we have our important things that we believe in very deeply and we're not going to give up on the very basics – but we understand we have a bigger job and that bigger job is to ensure that the United States is on a good, strong fiscal path because that affects everything," she says.

"When the United States falls as it has in the last five years from number one to number seven in competitiveness, that hurts us," Whitman explains. "It hurts us domestically and internationally, and that's part of national security."