White House Blames 'Super Committee' Failure On GOP

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters Monday that by opposing tax increases on the wealthy, Republicans on the congressional debt reduction committee have killed any chance of a deal being reached.

During his briefing this afternoon, Carney was asked to respond to the growing likelihood that the twelve-member panel will fail to meet its deadline Thursday to pass a plan to trim the nation’s deficit by around $1.3 trillion.

Carney first argued that Republicans “walked away” from negotiations this summer to strike a ‘grand bargain’ with Democrats on a $4 trillion debt reduction package. The deal that was ultimately agreed to in August created the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, which is now just days away from missing its mandatory deadline to send a plan to both Houses of Congress.

Should the so-called “super committee” fail, as is expected, then a series of automatic cuts to the domestic and defense budgets would be triggered. The roughly $1.3 trillion in “sequestrations” would begin to take effect in 2013.

Despite recent buzz that lawmakers are working on ways to prevent the trigger from going off, Carney said that the White House would oppose any efforts by lawmakers to let themselves off the hook.

“The sequester,” he said, “was designed specifically to be onerous — to hold Congress’ feet to the fire.”

Carney accused Republicans of “being unwilling to take a balanced approach” to deficit reduction, thereby increasing the odds of the automatic cuts taking hold.

Over the past several months, The White House and congressional Democrats have used the term “balanced approach” to refer to a plan that includes both spending cuts and tax increases. Last week, Republicans on the panel floated generating $300 billion in new revenues through tax reform, a measure that was rejected by Democrats who are opposed to permanently extending the Bush tax cuts in return.