http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/23/super-congress-debt-ceiling_n_907887.html

WASHINGTON -- Debt ceiling negotiators think they've hit on a solution to address the debt ceiling impasse and the public's unwillingness to let go of benefits such as Medicare and Social Security that have been earned over a lifetime of work: Create a new Congress.

This "Super Congress," composed of members of both chambers and both parties, isn't mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers. Under a plan put forth by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his counterpart Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), legislation to lift the debt ceiling would be accompanied by the creation of a 12-member panel made up of 12 lawmakers -- six from each chamber and six from each party.

Legislation approved by the Super Congress -- which some on Capitol Hill are calling the "super committee" -- would then be fast-tracked through both chambers, where it couldn't be amended by simple, regular lawmakers, who'd have the ability only to cast an up or down vote. With the weight of both leaderships behind it, a product originated by the Super Congress would have a strong chance of moving through the little Congress and quickly becoming law. A Super Congress would be less accountable than the system that exists today, and would find it easier to strip the public of popular benefits. Negotiators are currently considering cutting the mortgage deduction and tax credits for retirement savings, for instance, extremely popular policies that would be difficult to slice up using the traditional legislative process.

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Ladies and gentlemen we are gathered here today to pay our last respects to the United States of America.

Alas poor US, we knew it well.

Seriously, this might be the most flagrant disregard for liberty and abuse of powers since the Patriot Act.   This legislative body will have less accountability and more substantial powers than the general congress.  2011: The sequel to 1984.

Wow that is horrible!

A sick joke- that will undoubtedly be passed!

Huh.

And here I thought this was going to be about a new EU body because they finally realized you can't have a super currency while letting countries run deficits.

Oh great. The following gen, we'll have a body of government that is synonymous with a penis.

It seems to me like both parties want to create an environment where they can get away with an insider deal designed to shut out the people who voted for them.

What you really need is to strip one of the existing houses of most of it's powers - in most other countries it's the upper house (the Senate in your case) that's much weaker. That way you can't end up with such a deadlock between the two.

This is prone to happen when there is an inability for there to reach consensus on anything.  End result is that someone will call out for a strong man to push an agenda through for the "common good".  So long as individuals squabble among themselves, look for things like this to happen.  Hey, don't blame your congressman, blame Washington.

Deadlock is a feature not a bug ...

The government of the United States was designed with several checks and balances that tend  to result in deadlock when a party tries to do something without support.  It is only a really big problem now because politicians are so worried about how their statements or actions will be portrayed in a 24 hour news cycle.

Well you've got a very poisonous bi-partisian atmosphere. Neither party seems willing to compromise and with one in charge of each house it's possibily going to end up with the USA in a partial default, the feature isn't working.