Both Parties Bank on 2012 After Supercommittee's Collapse

The failure of the supercommittee debt panel has both Republicans and Democrats looking to 2012 to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Both parties hope that next year’s elections will give them the mandate to solve the debt problem their way — without the need for pesky compromise, The Washington Post reported.

As soon as the supercommittee admitted defeat, Republican candidates for president chimed in with the solution, replace President Barack Obama. “Our president has had no involvement in the process,” the Post quotes GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney as saying. “I find that extraordinary.”

On the Hill, members of Congress were quick to say that things would be different if their side controlled both chambers. “The supercommittee has unmasked the Republicans,” said Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y. “They have proven that they are too extreme and that they care more about millionaires than Medicare.”

However, the odds of one party’s being able to win the White House, the House and get a 60-vote majority in the Senate to stop filibusters are not good.

“The country is severely divided. That almost certainly means a closely divided Congress, and that means more difficulties,” Lee Hamilton, a Democrat who served in Congress for 34 years and now heads the Center on Congress at Indiana University, told the Post.