Democratic and Republican leaders have begun to spread word among colleagues that they believe the supercommittee will fall short of its goal to find $1.2 trillion in cuts, increasing the likelihood that the 2012 elections may be the only way to resolve the deepening partisan divisions that have prevented Congress time and time again from getting a handle on its finances…

After a two-hour meeting in the Senate’s historic Foreign Relations Committee room, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) emerged Thursday, saying the six Democrats on the panel were ready to accept an offer by Toomey to raise revenues, $250 billion of which would result from new taxes by capping certain deductions.

But Democrats had several concerns with the Toomey plan over its calls to permanently lower tax rates for all income levels combined with its benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Democrats on Thursday night were putting the finishing touches on their counteroffer that would balance hundreds of billions in new taxes, cuts out of Medicare, Medicaid and hundreds of billions out of discretionary spending — about half of which could come from defense programs. Money from unspent war funds would be used for permanently fixing the Medicare reimbursement rate for physicians and the alternative minimum tax, extending unemployment insurance benefits and pouring money into the nation’s aging highway system.

But Democratic sources said final details were still being agreed upon. And Republicans appeared to be uniting behind the Toomey plan, setting up a partisan showdown next week at a committee vote in which both proposals will very likely fail.