Supercommittee likely to announce failure to agree on debt plan

The special debt-reduction supercommittee is likely to admit failure to come up with a debt plan as the Nov. 23 deadline looms, reported the Associated Press.

Republican co-chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas said the 12-member committee faced a "daunting challenge" to cut $1.2 trillion out of the federal budget, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Hensarling told the Fox News Sunday program:

Nobody wants to give up hope. Reality is, to some extent, starting to overtake hope.

With news that the supercommittee may be bracing for failure, the blame game began on Sunday morning's political news shows, reported the Washington Post. Most politicians talked about their efforts in the past tense and referenced the markets' reactions to news of the failure. The committee would have to unofficially present its plan by midnight on Monday to meet the panel's parliamentary rules.

More from GlobalPost: Supercommittee talks at a standstill

Politico added that Republicans are saying the Democrats wanted to institute a $1 trillion tax hike, while Democrats argued Republicans wanted to gut popular entitlements and protect the rich.

According to the New York Times, the result of a no-deal will be automatic spending cuts totaling $1.2 trillion beginning in 2013. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that domestic programs would be cut by 7.8 percent, Medicare spending would be cut by 2 percent, and defense programs would be cut by 10 percent.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Associated Press that the required $454 billion cuts to defense spending would be "devastating" and leave a "hollow force."

More from GlobalPost: Down to the wire for the deficit-cutting Super Committee