Remember how the failure of the Simpson-Bowles commission to actually adopt a plan under their procedural rules
didn't matter worth a damn?
What does that tell you about the prospects for the so-called "Super Congress," the new Totally Official and Awesome Gang of 12 being appointed by the bipartisan (there's that word again!) leadership to fight The Brawl to Settle It All?
Yes, the "Super Congress" (really just another Joint Committee, of which there are already several) is going to be evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, which could very well mean they'll deadlock 6-6 on everything. And yes, the system has built into it what amounts to a seventh Republican vote: the "trigger" that says that a failure of the committee to report by the deadline sets off across-the-board spending cuts in place of its "recommendations."
But the success of the zombie lie that the Simpson-Bowles cat food commission did in fact reach a conclusion and did in fact make recommendations tells us pretty clearly that we should expect the same damn thing with respect to the "Super Congress." A failure to report out recommendations under the rules set out in the debt ceiling deal may mean that those recommendations won't automatically get preferential treatment during floor consideration, and it would mean that the full Congress isn't obligated under the terms of the deal to consider its recommendations. But that doesn't mean the "recommendations" won't come to the floor anyway, nor that Members of Congress and/or the traditional media won't treat them as the official product of the "Super Congress" anyway.
Without getting into the subject of how those "recommendations" can be brought to the floor—a subject for another day—just keep in mind how invested The Village was in the Simpson-Bowles non-result when thinking about the chances of the "Super Congress" getting its own product into the spotlight and considered legitimate, even if the predictable 6-6 tie (or even an outright defeat) really means there's no plan at all.