— With the congressional approval rating at an unimpressive low nationwide, yet another legislative failure — this time from a bipartisan committee tasked with cutting the deficit — looms in the minds of voters heading into next year’s elections.

The panel, supported by Republicans and Democrats in the Missouri delegation, failed to reach a deal that would cut the national deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade, triggering a total of $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts from domestic and defense spending in 2013.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, up for reelection next year, said she was disappointed the members failed to compromise.

“I’m sorely disappointed that too few members of the Supercommittee were willing to compromise, and that too many members were instead more interested in protecting millionaires and billionaires from higher taxes on their second million dollars,” McCaskill said. “I plan to keep up my fight for a commonsense plan to solve this challenge.”

Republicans, hoping to unseat her next year, blame Democrats’ push for revenue increases for the committee’s failure.

“It’s clear Senator McCaskill and her Senate Democrat colleagues have an addiction to higher taxes, bigger government and more spending, but voters in Missouri will have an opportunity to cure her of that addiction when they go to the polls next November,” said Chris Bond, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a group focused on her seat as one of the ones that could flip control of the Senate to Republicans next year.

John Brunner, a St. Louis businessman who entered the Republican primary to take on McCaskill next year, said he was not surprised by the outcome of the committee.

“The idea that Washington could fix the problem by raising the debt ceiling and putting a bunch of politicians together in a room in Washington was flawed from the start,” said Brunner. “The politicians in Washington are part of the problem. Missourians should have the opportunity to send a Citizen Senator to Washington to get America working again.”

Sarah Steelman, who was the first Republican to enter the field to challenge McCaskill last year, questioned the sincerity of lawmakers on the committee.

“The secret Super Committee proved to be just what I said it would be – a fund raising tool for the status quo,” said Steelman, who launched an effort to discourage committee members from accepting campaign contributions during their time on the committee.

Rep. Todd Akin, another Republican vying for the seat, said Democrats “brought the Super Committee negotiations to a crashing conclusion” with their support of tax increases as part of a deficit reduction deal.

McCaskill said nonetheless, she is “not giving up” on the idea of large deficit reduction.