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The Congressional Super Committee charged with cutting $1.2 trillion in federal spending has failed to meet its deadline. A statement was issued late last night by the co-Chairs of the committee, saying “after months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline.” Republican Representative John Hensarling, one of six GOP members of the committee expressed to Fox News over the weekend, his frustrations. The Super Committee’s failure now means several things will happen automatically in about a year unless lawmakers take action to prevent them. Payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits for millions of Americans will expire. An across the board cut to the Medicare program will take place, which translates into doctors getting paid 40% less for services rendered to Medicare patients. Lawmakers are already planning to introduce legislation to stave off the cuts. Meanwhile stock prices fell yesterday in anticipation of the Super Committee’s failure. A new survey by CNN and ORC International released this week shows that two thirds of Americans are in favor of taxing the wealthy. However, 60% of Americans also support deep cuts to spending but not major changes to Social Security or Medicare. Not surprisingly, those who identified as Republicans tended not to support tax increases while those who identified as Democrats tended not to support spending cuts.

GUEST: Max Fraad Wolff, an instructor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University and senior analyst with Greencrest Capital