Super Committee Failure Looms

After two months of deliberation and debate to try to find ways to cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over ten years, the deficit panel is expected to announce today that it was unable to come to terms on an agreement.

The Associated Press/Boston Globe: Panel Set To Fail To Cut Deficit $1.2 Trillion
It's just about over for a special deficit-reduction super committee, which appears set to admit failure on Monday in its quest to sop up at least $1.2 trillion in government red ink over the coming decade. The bipartisan 12-member panel is sputtering to a close after two months of talks in which key members and top congressional leaders never got close to bridging a fundamental divide over how much to raise taxes. The budget deficit has forced the government to borrow 36 cents of every dollar it spent last year (Taylor, 11/21).

The New York Times: Lawmakers Trade Blame As Deficit Talks Crumble
Barring an unexpected turnaround before Monday's deadline, the failure of the special Congressional deficit committee will be the third high-profile effort to fall short of a deal in the last 12 months, including a bipartisan deficit commission and talks last summer between President Obama and Speaker John A. Boehner (Lipton, 11/20). 

Reuters: Grand Deficit-Cutting Effort Ends With Whimper
The Republican and Democratic leaders of a 12-member congressional super committee are set to declare defeat in a joint statement to be released after three months of talks failed to bridge deep divides over taxes and spending. After a year of bruising budget battles, it is another sign that lawmakers are too entrenched to compromise on the tax increases and benefit cuts that budget experts say are needed to set the country's finances on a stable path (Ferraro and Sullivan, 11/21).

Bloomberg: U.S. Super Committee Ready To Announce Failure
The deficit-cutting congressional super committee is expected to announce tomorrow that it has failed to reach agreement on at least $1.2 trillion in federal budget savings, a Democratic aide said. The panel has been deadlocked over taxes, with Democrats seeking tax increases on high earners while Republicans were pushing for an extension of tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush. Another sticking point has been the Republicans' call for cuts, over Democrats' opposition, in entitlement programs such as Medicare (Hunter and Litvan, 11/20).

The Washington Post:  Debt Super Committee Members Brace For Failure
Rather than making a final effort at compromise, members of the special deficit-reduction committee spent their final hours casting blame and pointing fingers, bracing for the reaction from financial markets that are already jittery over the European debt crisis (Kane, 11/20).

The Wall Street Journal:  Deficit Effort Nears Collapse
Barring an unlikely, last-second breakthrough, the committee is expected to announce Monday that it failed to reach its mandated goal of writing a bipartisan bill to reduce deficits over the next 10 years by at least $1.2 trillion (Bendavid and Hook, 11/21).

Los Angeles Times: Deficit Committee Heads For Less-Than-Super Endgame
If no deal is reached, domestic and Defense Department accounts will face automatic spending cuts that would be triggered in 2013. Defense hawks are angling to protect the Pentagon. Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that it was important to "change the configuration" of the mandatory cuts to soften the blow on the Pentagon in particular.  But Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) said on Fox that it would be "wimpy" to undo the so-called triggers (Mascaro and  Memoli, 11/20).

Des Moines Register: Iowans Ponder Effect Of Deficit Panel Failure
Iowa's business and government leaders are warily watching the slow-motion failure to date of the congressional super committee, but are uncertain about the likely impacts for Iowa stemming from the panel's action — or potential inaction. The specially appointed committee of 12 senators and congressmen has been working since September to slash spiraling federal deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Lawmakers could hit that target with program cuts, revenue increases or some bipartisan combination of the two (Noble and Belz, 11/18).

The Boston Globe: Time Nearly Up, Committee Failing To Reach A Deficit Deal
Despite all the earnest talk three months ago that failure was not an option, the congressional deficit-cutting panel yesterday appeared to be on the verge of conceding defeat in its attack on the country's mounting deficit. A chorus of lawmakers, including members of the deficit-slashing super committee, acknowledged that it was in a losing battle, and that the panel would probably fail to submit a budget-cutting plan to the Congressional Budget Office by tonight’s midnight deadline (Calvan, 11/21).

Kaiser Health News also tracked the super committee news coverage on Saturday and Sunday.