Super-committee deadline looms

The congressional super committee, facing a fast-approaching deadline, appears headed toward failure unless negotiations shift dramatically in the final few days.

Multiple sources say Republican leaders have proposed a smaller package of spending cuts and revenues as a 'Plan B' if the panel does not succeed, though even this offer appears unlikely to gain much traction.

But the plan, which would reduce the deficit by about $640 billion, was dismissed by Democratic leaders according to two Republican sources. Democrats, according to multiple sources, are insisting on a higher revenue component – such as eliminating oil and gas subsidies - to achieve the "balanced approach" they have sought all along.

Republicans, working with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, offered Democratic leaders this "backup plan" which included about $540 billion in mandatory spending cuts and fees, and only $3 billion in revenue from closing the corporate jets tax break.

That formula breakdowns to tax revenues of only one half of one percent of the total reductions proposed.

Sources say the focus has now shifted to finding a way to lessen the blow of the sequester - the automatic across-the-board cuts scheduled to set in if the super committee does not reach agreement on $1.2 trillion in deficit savings over 10 years.

(source)