Obama: 'I will veto any effort' to undo automatic cuts

President vows to keep up pressure for bipartisan deal on deficit reduction.

President Obama Monday evening blamed Republicans for the failure of the super committee to meet its deadline for a debt plan and warned that he will veto any attempt to eliminate the automatic spending cuts that go into effect with that failure.

In an appearance in the White House briefing room a little more than an hour after the committee officially conceded failure, the president said his answer to those who want to eliminate those cuts "is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off-ramps on this one."

He added, "We need to keep the pressure up to compromise, not the turn off the pressure."