The bipartisan debt-reduction commission that President Obama created eight months ago will begin meeting privately soon after Tuesday's elections, with just three weeks to try to agree on cutbacks to Americans' favorite tax breaks and benefit programs.

The group, which has a Dec. 1 deadline for recommending how to reduce the annual deficits swelling the federal debt, purposely has done little to date beyond five public hearings, and it has decided nothing lest any decisions leak and blow up in the flammable mix of a campaign year with control of Congress in the balance.

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