President Barack Obama will challenge the U.S. Congress to preserve an expiring payroll tax cut on Tuesday as he travels to New Hampshire to seize the initiative in the wake of a collapsed effort to reduce the nation's budget deficit.With the wreckage of a deficit-cutting effort by a bipartisan congressional committee still smoldering, politicians are scrambling to limit the damage.

Investors worry that the next few months could provide more evidence that Republicans and Democrats are too divided to help the sluggish economy and rein in the ballooning national debt.

Obama's Democrats aim to extend a tax break for workers and other economy-boosting measures due to expire at the end of the year. Democrats had hoped to roll those elements into any deal that would have emerged from the 12-member congressional "super committee."