Congress failed to come to a reasonable agreement and almost caused the government to cosaid that it me to a grinding halt earlier this year. To avert that from happening, a so called "super committee" a bipartisan group was formed, tasked with coming up with a working plan that could be agreed on, adopted and enacted to cut the federal deficit substantially. But, despite plans proposed by members of both parties, that super committee has effectively failed, unable to get past political gamesmanship in time to deliver a plan for review. The deadline was officially Wednesday, but the plan needed to be released by Monday so that it could be reviewed before a vote.

President Barack Obama is pointing fingers at the members of Congress for the failure of the committee while Congress is pointing fingers at the President. Now both parties as well as the President are calling on Congress to get back to work to come to some kind of an agreement before automatic cuts start in 2013. Those cuts are going to make serious budget cuts across the board, including in defense spending.

Both the President and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada were disappointed that the Republicans were unwilling to look past increased taxes on the wealthy despite a plan that would also make some dramatic and nearly painful cuts in their version of the budget proposal. But, Reid stated, the Republicans were not willing to even meet that plan half way, preferring to dismiss the plan out of hand.

But, Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, told the media that it was not the Republicans that were not willing to bargain. Instead, according to him, no compromise could be reached because Democrats were not going to sign off on a proposal that did not result in a larger government with wider reaching powers. He also stated that the Democrats were interested in punishing job creators at a time when they should be rewarded.

The entire field of Republican presidential contenders took the failure as a chance to pounce, calling it a glaring lack of leadership ability on the part of President Obama, a sentiment likely to be echoed during the upcoming election year.

In all, three separate plans have been sent before the committee and all three have failed for one reason or another. Senator Joe Lieberman has suggested that the three bills should all be reviewed on the Congressional floor and put up for a vote before the end of the year.