After spending nine days on foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region, President Obama returns to Washington this week to face a most pressing domestic issue: the government's $15 trillion debt.

Obama arrived back at the White House early Sunday amid news reports that the special congressional "supercommittee" -- assigned to submit a debt-cutting plan to Congress by Wednesday -- won't be able to reach an agreement.

If that comes to pass, look for Obama, his aides and other Democrats to criticize Republicans for opposing tax increases on the wealthy as well as budget cuts in order to cut the debt.

Reports Politico: "The White House, which has stayed out of the negotiations, is already positioning itself to exploit the failure of the talks, attacking the GOP for demanding low tax rates for all income groups, including the most affluent Americans. Republicans and Democrats already are talking about a joint statement announcing that the panel made progress, but was unable to resolve the differences after months of talks."

Republicans have said higher taxes would further slow the economy and would not help create the jobs.

Obama -- who supports higher taxes on the wealthy as well as budget cuts to reduce the debt -- said during his trip to Hawaii, Australia and Indonesia that the supercommittee needs to "bite the bullet and do what needs to be done, because the math won't change.

"I'm prepared to sign legislation that is balanced, that solves this problem," Obama said.

The lack of a supercommittee debt deal could trigger automatic budget cuts, reports the Associated Press: