Utilizing a manufactured crisis to game the system for cuts to our social safety net, is a violation of the spirit of our Constitution, as a document designed to provide checks and balances on the powers of any one branch. Calling this a "crisis" is an abuse of power. It has produced a crisis of its own, an attack on the basic democratic principles of our democracy. The proposed Super Congress, in both the Boehner and Reid plans however, is directly super unconstitutional.
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.
This event that is being manufactured in order to impose an age of austerity on the American people, could be seen as a kind of financial coup. The coup has not taken place yet, but it is being proposed and "debated", what passes for debate, in front of our eyes. The sides involved, the two parties, are not that far apart and many believe will eventually negotiate some sort of compromise that will involve cuts to our safety net, massive, harmful cuts to the deficit, and a Super Congress that is apart from the Constitutional structure of our country, that will operate to create legislation to enact further cuts to our social safety net.
This is unconstitutional, and indeed, in addition to the attacks on our social safety net, this is the actual "crisis".