President Obama is set to make a statement from the White House briefing room at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, following news that the congressional super committee has failed to reach a deal to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the budget over 10 years.
The news of the super committee's inability to break in impasse comes as little surprise, as deep partisan divides over new revenue and cuts to government benefit programs like Medicare have long been expected to prevent the body from coming to an agreement.
The Associated Press reports on some of the consequences of the unsuccessful move:
With the collapse of the deficit-cutting supercommittee, Congress' emergency backup budget-cutting plan now is supposed to take over – automatic, across-the-board spending reductions of roughly $1 trillion from military and well as domestic government programs.
But the big federal deficit reductions that are to be triggered by Monday's supercommittee collapse wouldn't kick in until January 2013. And that allows plenty of time for lawmakers to try to rework the cuts or hope that a new post-election cast of characters – possibly a different president – will reverse them.
There is plenty of cause for concern after the failure, Arthur Delaney and Ryan Grim report. Programs like unemployment insurance and Medicare could face larger cuts because of the super committee's decision to punt.