Enough worrying about a couple hundred folks elected to Congress. Our next concern must be with an even dozen from that same number. As part of the debt reduction measure approved by the House and the Senate and signed into law on Tuesday by President Obama, a committee of twelve is to be selected to come up with some measures that will authenticate what the debt reduction bill is intended to do. And in signing the measure, the President made it clear he is expecting some higher taxes from corporations and individuals able to afford it. Revenue, we were told, was not to be a part of the deal. The twelve, to be evenly divided among Republicans and Democrats from each house, will have to come up with something to meet this requirement, now a part of Mr. Obama’s charge.

We don’t yet know who they are, or what their exact sentiments may be. But their deliberations and their conclusions stand to give us yet another series of causes for applause and/or doubt. Refine the consternation a couple hundred people afforded the American public during the Debt debate, put it up to twelve elected folk, and you have the material for some real confusion. In other words, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

How would you like to be one of the twelve? It isn’t as much an honor as a sentence. Yet we shall press on, and around Thanksgiving we shall see what the dirty dozen come up with. Are their deliberations to be public? Or should they convene privately on some peak in Antarctica?

If you thought it was confusing in the past few weeks, hang on.