Other folks are doing a bang up job covering the Super Catfood Congress' failure (which is A Good Thing from where I sit).  But in following what the Austerity For Thee Elites are debating on the Hill and the Occupiers are pointing out at Zuccotti, UC Davis, et al, a couple things occur to me vis the framing of our Constitution.

On July 2nd, 1787, the actual anniversary of our declaring independence from Britain, the Constitutional Convention was debating the legislative branch.  You all know the big concerns of big states, small states, slave states, etc.  But you might not know that the folks in Philadelphia annointed a grand committee to resolve the impasse:

General PINKNEY. [P]roposed that a Committee consisting of a member from each State should be appointed to devise & report some compromise.

Mr. SHARMAN. We are now at a full stop, and nobody he supposed meant that we shd. break up without doing something. A committee he thought most likely to hit on some expedient.

…

Mr. RANDOLPH favored the commitment though he did not expect much benefit from the expedient.

…

Mr. WILSON objected to the Committee, because it would decide according to that very rule of voting which was opposed on one side [equal representation by 11 states in attendance]. Experience in Congs. had also proved the inutility of Committees consisting of members from each State

Mr. LANSING wd. not oppose the commitment, though expecting little advantage from it.

Mr. MADISON opposed the Commitment. He had rarely seen any other effect than delay from such Committees in Congs…

Mr. GERRY was for the Commitmt. Something must be done, or we shall disappoint not only America, but the whole world. 

Unlike the Super Committee's failure, that one did forge a multilateral compromise that ended up being, with some modification, the Great Compromise (for better or worse).  During the discussion, another issue relevent to today was brought up by Gouverneur Morris:

The Rich will strive to establish their dominion & enslave the rest. They always did. They always will…

A firm Governt. alone can protect our liberties. He fears the influence of the rich. They will have the same effect here as elsewhere if we do not by such a Govt. keep them within their proper sphere. 

We should remember that the people never act from reason alone. The Rich will take advantage of their passions & make these the instruments for oppressing them. The Result of the Contest will be a violent aristocracy, or a more violent despotism. The schemes of the Rich will be favored by the extent of the Country.

The people in such distant parts can not communicate & act in concert. They will be the dupes of those who have more knowledge & intercourse. The only security agst. encroachments will be a select & sagacious body of men, instituted to watch agst. them on all sides.

But don't count on “historian” Newt Gingrich or any One-Percenters recalling these tidbits of our founding…

ntodd