A group of hawkish Republican senators announced new legislation Wednesday to prevent billions of dollars of defense cuts called for after the supercommittee failed to reach agreement.

GOP Sens. Jon Kyl (AZ), John McCain (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC) and Kelly Ayotte (NH) said this morning they will introduce legislation in January to keep the commitment to find $1.2 trillion more in government savings, but sparing defense funding in the meanwhile by looking to other parts of the government to slash spending.

"We will have a plan, we'll have it in January and I hope our colleagues would heed the words of our Secretary of Defense, of our service chiefs and every military expert that I know that cuts of this magnitude will put our nation's national security at risk," McCain said at a press conference on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Jon Kyl said it would be "impossible" to cut $600 billion from the Defense Department without harming national security.

"We wanted to make it clear what our intention is so that there is absolutely no doubt in anybody's mind that the across the board [cuts] to defense spending will not have to happen," Kyl said.

Whether the legislation advances is another story. And even if it did, President Obama has threatened to veto any attempt to undo the so-called "sequester" of cuts contained as part of the supercommittee agreement.

Sen. Graham called the idea of across-the-board defense cuts as the consequence of the super committee failure "ill-conceived". Sen. McCain called it "idiotic".

"It offends the hell out of me," Graham said, "these men and women have really gone out of their way to protect all of us."

"When you get Congressional leaders saying lets gut the military, put thousands of people at risk in terms of being kicked out. If you are going to fire anybody, fire us! And keep the soldiers," he said.

The senators said that the Defense Department is already planning for $450 billion cuts over the next ten years as a result of the debt ceiling deal and they could not absorb another $600 in cuts.

Where would they find the savings to replace the defense cuts? Kyl said there were savings identified by the supercommittee and by the Biden group that might go into the legislation. He said he was hoping this would be a bipartisan exercise.

Ayotte said, "We shouldn't subjugate our national security for our failure to do our jobs."

“A long-running war between Democrats and Republicans over Bush-era tax cuts doomed the debt supercommittee's chances of reaching a deal. Efforts to overhaul the tax code may await the same fate as both parties gear up to make taxes a central issue in 2012 election,” the AP writes.

“The supercommittee’s failure is being viewed widely as a debacle — yet another sign that Washington cannot overcome partisan politics to deal with the nation’s record deficit,” The Hill writes. “But the stalemate hasn’t been a political nightmare for everyone in Washington. Politically, the deadlocked talks have yielded both winners and losers, from lawmakers who openly rooted against a deal to those who said failure was not an option.” 

“The unfortunate demise of the congressional super committee wasn’t accompanied by nearly the drama and hand-wringing of this summer’s debt-ceiling disaster, but its passing is more fuel for the fire of public disillusionment and anger toward Washington and Congress. With record-low job-approval numbers, disenchantment with Congress can still intensify,” Charlie Cook writes in today’s National Journal. “The real showdown will be late next year, when the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush expire and New Year’s 2013 triggers draconian sequestration budget cuts. That’s when lawmakers will realize that there really is a loaded gun pointed at their heads. Under various post-election scenarios, including lame-duck sessions, both sides will want to avoid deep cuts to their most cherished priorities. In particular, Republicans will be desperate to extend the Bush tax cuts. The real showdown and real drama will come after all of the 2012 votes are counted.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R) defended his role in the Super Committee process in an op-ed in USA Today, saying, “I did everything possible.” Instead, he blamed President Obama and Democrats for wanting to raise taxes on the wealthiest. “[T]he so-called supercommittee was unable to reach agreement because President Obama and Washington Democrats insisted on dramatic tax hikes on American job creators, which would make our economy worse,” Boehner writes, adding, “I am not going to give up on the country, and neither will my Republican colleagues.”

The Wall Street Journal: “So it's all Grover Norquist's fault. Democrats and the media are singing in unison that the reason Congress's antideficit super committee has failed is because of the conservative activist's magical antitax spell over Republicans. Not to enhance this Beltway fable, but thank you, Mr. Norquist. By reminding Republicans of their antitax promises, he has helped to expose the real reason for the super committee's failure: the two parties disagree profoundly on a vision of government.”

If the bipartisan Congressional committee tasked with reducing long-term federal debt does not agree on a deal by Thanksgiving, it will trigger trillions of dollars in across the board cuts, but the committee is finding it difficult to agree on taxes and entitlements. NBC’s Luke Russert reports.