(Washington) -- Pennsylvania's junior U.S. senator is calling the failure of the so-called Super Committee a wasted opportunity to reach an agreement on a deficit-cutting plan. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey was one of 12 members of Congress to serve on the bipartisan panel that was charged with slashing $1.2 trillion from the budget in the next decade. In a conference call with reporters, he said Democrats on the commission would not agree to any meaningful deficit reduction proposals. "I feel like we really made every effort we could have. We proposed a balanced plan. Our Democratic friends never coalesced around any plan. We offered a serious proposal that took us out of our comfort zone, and still we didn't get any kind of reciprocity," Toomey says. He says the fact an agreement could not be reached sends a discouraging message to the public. He admits Congress is very dysfunctional right now. The inability of the committee to meet its deadline means the government is facing about $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts in January 2013.