Obama blames Republicans as panel fails to slash US debt

The bitter partisanship gripping Washington blocked a deal among members of a special congressional panel that struggled and eventually failed in its mission to cut more than a trillion dollars from America’s crippling and expanding debt.

As the committee announced that it was going out of business, the US stock market had already taken a sharp decline in anticipation of the so-called supercommittee’s inability to put together legislation that would slash US deficit spending by at least $1.2 trillion. The country’s overall national debt has risen above $15 trillion.