Make Congress Super

The "super" part of the "supercommittee," occasionally known as a "super-Congress" when people wanted to imply that it was somehow undemocratic, was that its recommendation, if delivered before this week, would be immune from amendment or filibuster. It never had the power to pass laws; the Constitution has some pretty specific things to say on that subject. (It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of sentencing commissions.) But filibuster and amendment are venerable old tools of obstruction, and protecting a piece of legislation from them is a good way to aid it through Congress. Not good enough, if the median Senator and the median Representative can't possibly reach an agreement on the issue, let alone the two sides of the committee itself. But that committee is not, after all, dying this week, just losing the "super" part. This is regarded as tantamount to death in the political media, which seems like a good justification for making the following recommendation again:

Give Congress these superpowers!!!

If we think that it's good to protect legislation on an important subject from the filibuster, then hey, here's an idea: let's abolish the filibuster! (After all, it can scarcely be presumed that Congress passes frivolous legislation, though it has probably happened with depressing frequency.) If we think that open amendment rules allow minorities to act in bad faith to obstruct a bill with majority support, then we should reform amendment rules. Saying "the filibuster and amendment rules are big problems, so let's create a SuperCommittee to deal with one specific important problem and allow it to override those rules" is not the right way to go. If you want a super-Congress, try making Congress itself a little more super.