Aides: 'Super Committee' likely to announce failure to reach debt deal

By Lisa Desjardins and Kate Bolduan, CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The deficit reduction committee has until Wednesday to reach a deal on $1.2 trillion savings
• Its first deadline is Monday
• If the committee fails, across-the-board cuts will follow

Washington (CNN) -- Members of the "super committee" charged with coming up with $1.2 trillion in budget cuts are focused on how to announce failure to reach a deal, Democratic and Republican aides confirmed to CNN Sunday.
While aides said no final decision had been made, they acknowledged that -- barring an unforeseen development -- an announcement of no deal is the most likely scenario.
Talks on trying to reach a deficit reduction agreement are essentially over and discussions are focused on a Monday announcement, a senior Democratic aide said.
Another senior Democratic source said, "No decisions or agreement has been reached concerning any announcement or how this will end. But, yes, the likely outcome is no agreement will be reached." A Republican aide said, "I don't think they've decided when they will do it."
Members of the bipartisan debt committee said Sunday a wide chasm remains.
A Monday deadline looms for some kind of plan to move forward, with a vote required by Wednesday.
The mood on the morning news shows was somber.
"I'm going to be waiting all day," Washington Sen. Patty Murray, Democratic co-chair of the committee told CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union."
"I'll be at the table, as I've been, willing to talk to any Republican who says, look, my country is more important, this pile of bills is not going to go away, the challenges that we have is not going to disappear, we need to cross that divide," said Murray.
She took harsh aim at Republicans who took a pledge not to raise taxes created by the president of the conservative group Americans for Tax Reform.
"I'll tell you one of the problems has been a pledge that too many Republicans took to a Republican wealthy lobbyist by the name of Grover Norquist, whose name has come up in meetings time and time again," Murray said, adding she was optimistic a compromise would be reached.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, reiterated the GOP mantra that Bush-era tax cuts should continue and entitlement spending be cut. Democrats are keen on letting the Bush-era cuts expire for the highest-income Americans in 2012.
"In Washington, there are folks who won't cut a dollar unless we raise taxes," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"If you want to get serious about the deficit our country has to grow economically," Kyl said. "You can't grow if you raise taxes in the middle of a recession."
While the 12-member panel's deadline for a final vote is Wednesday, any blueprint must be made available 48 hours in advance of a committee vote and must be accompanied by a Congressional Budget Office analysis scoring how much it would reduce deficits. Congress must then vote on the deal, without amendment, by December 23.
To stave off automatic spending cuts known as a sequester, the super committee must propose ways to reduce deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. At least seven of its 12 members must approve a plan in order to send it to the House and Senate in the form of legislation.
Then, both chambers must vote on the bill without amendment by December 23. For the plan to pass, a simple majority in each chamber must vote in favor.
A failure to pass any agreement would result in $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts across much of the federal budget starting in 2013, evenly divided between defense and non-defense spending. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Congress this week that such cuts could cripple the American military establishment.
Since Congress made the law governing the sequester, it can also amend or repeal it, as some lawmakers are pushing for.
While Democrats have expressed concern about deep cuts in social spending, programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps and veterans' benefits would be spared the budget ax.
On Friday, Republicans floated a $640 billion package, including roughly $540 billion in savings and fees, that would allow negotiators to claim at least partial success and hold down the amount of the automatic cuts.
The plan features mandatory spending cuts and some revenue from closing one tax loophole for corporate jet owners, along with some government fees. This would only address about half of the super committee's mandate to cut at least $1.2 trillion.
Democrats have proposed a solution that would generate $400 billion from increased tax collections and $700 billion in spending meant to jump-start the economy, including an extension of the payroll tax cut, extended unemployment benefit payments and money to permanently prevent cuts in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Democrats want to offset those costs with money saved from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a move some legislators in both parties characterize as an accounting gimmick.