The 12-member bipartisan super committee formed to bridge the $1.2 trillion deficit is expected to announce its failure to reach an agreement Monday. The committee, which has been in talks for two months, could not reach an agreement over how much to raise taxes. Republicans supported the continuation of Bush-era tax cuts and cutting of entitlement spending, whereas Democrats wanted to let the Bush-era cuts expire for highest-income Americans.
An across-the-board failure to reach an agreement would trigger a $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts across the federal budget over the next nine years. Up to $454 billion of that would be from the Pentagon, which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says would be “devastating”. The super committee technically has until Wednesday to approve a plan, though plans are supposed to be unveiled 48 hours in advance.
