Debt commission holds last meeting before election

[October 23, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's budget commission is holding its final meeting until after the midterm elections, when it hopes to produce a plan to wrestle the federal deficit under control.

The commission and its chairman, Erskine Bowles, have kept a low profile so far in order to keep their work out of the bitterly fought midterms. But when it reconvenes in November, the panel's work will intensify as it considers options for cutting the deficit by more than half by 2015.

It'll take 14 of the panel's 18 members to come up with a plan for a possible congressional vote in December. That's a tough task given the time crunch and wide ideological divisions among the members.

[Associated Press]

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