so, director elmendorf, welcome back to the committee. i want to thank you for the outstanding work that you and your team have been doing and with an extraordinary heavy workload. really extraordinarily heavy. i believe your leading cbo in a challenging time has risen to the occasion. as i say, many times i disagre.s i make my disagreements known. sometimes you react to that. most of the times you don't. that's fine. and i think senator sessions will say the same thing. that you guys play it straight. i want to begin by highlighting what i believe are the key findings in cbo's report. this first chart depicts the ten-year budget outlook under the cbo new fiscal scenario. it shows the definite falling to $1.1 trillion in 2012. continuing to fall through 2015 and then rising through the latter half of the decade reaching $1.5 trillion in 2022. we cannot permit that to happen. please, colleagues, let's find a way to get this country back on track. we can do better than this. we are better than this. and we've got an absolute obligation to t

elmendorf, the time is yours. >> thank you mr. chairman, congress machb van hollen and your kind words about cbo. i'm priv lemged to be leading a group of extraordinairely talented and dedicated public servants and we all appreciate it very much what you have shown for our work. we will continue do our very best for this committee and for congress as a whole. i'll be referring as i talk to some charts that i'm told are in your notebooks. it's about a half a dozen slides. they're mostly out of the outlook, but they're collected in this handout to make it easier for you to follow what i say. lenlet me begin by saying the economic projections are considered on current law not because we expect that there will be no changes in law but because this approach provides a benchmark against which potential changes can be measured. what we are presenting is a benchmark, not a forecast. that distinction has a large impact on the budget and economic projections. what is our assessment of the economic outlook? as you know, the pace of the recov

douglas elmendorf has testified to that. what is true, is when president clinton left office, we had a 5.6 trillion dollar projected surplus, in the indy eight years following, that was squandered -- and in the eight years following, that was squandered. when president obama took office, not only were their projected deficits, but we were losing 8000 -- 800,000 jobs a month. we were on a downward trajectory all over 7% negative gdp. the economy was in free fall. and for -- fortunately, as a result of actions taken by the president and congress recovery act, we stop the freefall, stabilize the economy, and we have been able to slowly climb out. now, we are not at a fast enough job creation rate. nobody would argue that. that means it is very important that we continue to do things to nurture the economy like extending the payroll tax cut for 1 yards 60 million working americans -- 160 million americans. the cult that is, of course, -- guest: that is, of course, and goodness, but we need to remember we are in a fragile state,

elmendorf for being with us today. i want to ask you some questions about what perhaps the biggest news on the healthcare was and that's the cbo decision to remove the class program from the january 2012 base line. despite that development, there's no mention of class in your testimony. and as you know in the final cost estimate of the healthcare legislation which was issued in march 20 of 2011, cbo projected that class would save $70 billion in the first decade. those savings represented nearly 60% of the total and 75% of the on-budget deficit reduction show shown in the healthcare law over the ten-year window. the estimate of class and base line updates did not take into account the substantial risk that the program would be insolvent and workable even though a significant amount of evidence would sug g gest that' the likely outcome. you had stood by the original class estimate, that is in august you only assume that the program's immeltation would be delayed by about a year. on september 22, the class office at hhs

elmendorf's testimony beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span3. >>> this is c-span3 with politics and public affairs programming throughout the week and every weekend, american history tv. 48 hours of people and events, telling the american story. get our schedules and see past programs at our websites. and join in the conversation on these social media sites. >>> the pentagon's number three official gave her last major speech sunday at the reserve officers association symposium in washington,tedown from the p on friday. this is just under an hour. >> welcome back, everyone. we'll continue with our program, continuing with the excitement. today's presentation titled "d.o.d. policy: a look back and a look ahead" will be in just a minute. before we begin the key speech, we would like to present the r.o.a. chaplain, lieutenant father vincent robert capidano, chaplain of the year award. the father was the only chaplain to receive the medal of honor. he was killed in action in vietnam in 1967. and we named the award for him abo

thank you. >> thank you, director elmendorf. thanks to all of the colleagues for participating in an excellent hearing. we've got more hearing next week. i hope colleagues will come and participate. we've got a lot of discussion that needs to occur in this committee to see if we can't find a way to come together. again, i thank the director. the committee stands in adjournment. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> in a few moments, a house senate conference committee continues negotiations on extending a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. in a little less than two hours, the senate budget committee hears about how the financial crisis in europe may affect the u.s. >> c-span's road to the white house political coverage takes you to the events. >> my leadership cut taxes 19 times and cast over 800 vetoes. we balanced the budget every single year, and we kept our schools first in the nation. my leadership will end the obama era and begin a new era of american prosperity. [ cheering ] >> there is a mess up in washington. they've c

elmendorf basically told us that at the hearing, there's no way to pay for the war. the way cbo scores if you have a million dollars for the war last year, they assume it's going to continue for it ten years. if you reduce that trend, then you've saved money under their scoring. but it's unrealistic in terms of the debt of the united states. there's no money there. no fund of money. it's not paid for. this money you're saying is going to be paid for from the war funding is going to be borrowed. it's money we're no longer borrowing for the war. instead of taking a deep breath and relax because we didn't have to borrow that money, you propose to spend half it on the roads. that's not common sense. it's the reason the country is going brochlt i remember asking m -- going broke. i remember asking mr. elmendorf on the eve of the vote weren't we double counting $500 billion to justify the health care bill and make it look like it's going to make mo f the government instead of cost money for the government. he said, yes, you're double counting. i asked him, would he put it

elmendorf. it shows that the cost of extending all of 2001/2003 tax cuts and fixing emt$4.5 trillion. that more than doubles the deficit under current law. it is just an indication of the magnitude of this issue and something we will all have to tackle. now, putside one issue because if we do not fill that hole, it doesn't have any impact on the social security trust fund. senator kyl knows this and others know this. after 2010, we also had a payroll tax cut for a year. that was not paid for. it did not take one penny out of the social security trust fund. the social security trust fund trustee has made that very clear because we are transferring dollar for dollar money from the general fund into the social security trust fund has zero impact. with respect to the general fund, the issue is the same with the payroll tax cut as it is for any tax cut. including tax cuts for the folks at the very top, which gets back to my original point. i just ask if we are going to apply a different standard on t

elmendorf. let me start out by saying you said repeatedly that we are on the budget track that is unsustainable. deficits are too high. too much debt. but you also say in this report that if we let the tax cuts expire as is provided for in current law and if we impose the spending cuts required by current law, economic growth, according to your analysis will actually plunge. we started out senator toomey and i agreeing on one thing. we have to have policies that strengthen economic growth. and yet you are saying that current law which ends the bush-era tax cuts at the end of this year and current law also imposes spending cuts, sequestration that is in line, that would cut about half. is that correct? >> yes, that is right, mr. chairman. >> so, you know, i think it is very confusing to people because it sounds like double talk to them. how can it be that in the one hand we are saying deficits and debts are a big problem, but on the other hand, if we cut spending and raise revenue, which over tim

elmendorf i'm sure pointed out under current law there's going to be a massive fiscal contraction in 2013. without addressing any of the specific policies involved, i think congress should be aware of that, and try to avoid having too big a hit on the recovery in 2013. and then, finally, you know, again, without taking specific policies -- aside specific policy, third point, fiscal policy is not about fiscal spending and taxes. a lot is the quality of the budget. are the things we're spending it on, are they going to help our economy? do they support rnd or workforce skills or other thanks will help the economy grow in the long run? on the tax side do we have -- are we moving towards more efficient, more effective tax codes, simpler, fairer and the like? so i think you want to look at the top lines, total spending and total tax, the deficit, but obviously, and it's easy for me to say, but it make as difference the quality of the program, the way the money is spent, the way the money is collected make as difference in terms of jobs and growth. >> mr. cole? >> thank you very much, mr.

elmendorf, welcome back. >> thank you. >> first a comment and then a question. the comment is that as we face the issues the problem of our healthcare system remains enormous. you and i have discussed before hand the scoring problems of at cell -- of addressing delivery reform. i hope that as you, as an important voice in this debate go around and talk about this that you don't become the captive of your methodology and avoid discussing the potential benefits to our economy of delivery system reform, simply because it's not quantifiable by the metrics of your organization. i think that we have two separate questions here. one is what you can score and the other is what's the right thing to do? and i hope that you will point out as often as you can that solving the excessive cost in our healthcare system by improving the quality of care is a very good thing to do, even if omb can't score it. cbo can't score it. >> yes, senator. so of course, there's a tremendous distinction between things that we estimate and the effects we estimate and the set of issues that you

elmendorf from the cb op testified yed that yes if we'd had a lower unemployment rate we would have a lower deficit. that followed up on his letter of october where he used technical language and says the underutilization of capital and labor resources in the economy if we had better outlidation, more people working, the projected federal deficit under the current laut in fiscal year 2012 would be about one-third lower. that deficit would be equal to about 4.0% of gross domestic product compared with 6.2% projected for 2012 in the cbo's baseline. if the economy were operating at its potential, the deficit would be lower because incomes and there are revenues would be higher while the rate of unemployment and therefore, outlays for certain government programs would be lower. so here's our frustration. and the frustration of folks back home. they know we can be doing more to reduce the deficit and put people back to work. but the congress has not been able to get off the dime and come to common agreement on ways we invest in infrastructure and research and development. so give us some w

more from the director of the congressional budget office, doug elmendorf, who announced yesterday the government bull run a $1.1 trillion deficit in the next fiscal year. a slight dip but high by any measure. the budget office reporting annual deficits will remain at the $1 trillion range the next several years if the bush era tax cuts are also extended. doug ellen dorff testifying yesterday and back up today taking questions from members of house side including congressman lloyd dogget, democrat from texas. >> during the short-term if i understand the testimony, it is that if we reduce the short-term deficit too quickly with sudden reductions in expenditures for vital public services, we'll actually retard quick growth in the short-term? >> yes, that's right. reductions in the deficit too quickly, through either tax increases or spending reductions, would retashd the quick recovery and that is consistent with i think the consensus of thinking in the economics profession, consistent with the experience that we're seeing in europe. where countries that are in worse budget shape than we

douglas elmendorf testifies about the economy and the federal budget. a cbo report released on tuesday repredicts a $1.1 trillion budget deficit this fiscal. we'll have live coverage of his temperature beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span3. >> we as explorers of literature, we as readers of literature have a responsibility. for those of you who are discovering the creation of literature, you have a responsibility, do you not? can you create anything you want in the world that you create in literature reflecting history or not and feel comfortable in that creation or must you presensor yourself? >> this weekend from lectures in history, professor william foster on the n word's place in american literature and culture saturday night at 8:00 eastern? alsoon american history tv, he changed the reading habit for american. a look at the influence of time incorporated founder henry luce publisher of "time" o, "fortune" and "life" magazine. >> and the oil boom hits and makes texas a leading oil state. visit the streets of beaumont, texas. this weekend

and nonpartisan cbo gave us some good healthy advice just a few months ago and director elmendorf reiterated that when he was here just a week or two ago.as if america can create more jobs, we can reduce the deficit. so it's very important to see the administration's job tion's creation strategy that also doubles as a debt reduction ion strategy.i'd li i'd like you to focus in a litt little bit on the administration's job creation strategy. i know it hasn't been easy because the president's american jobs act has been blocked by thn republican congress. but i'm happy to see that in this budget the president does not give up on a number of investments, strategies, and job creation strategies. if it's infrastructure, research and innovation, i appreciate that we're -- that you believe i that we need to continue to thaw invest there. and i'd like you to focus on education because it's vitally n important that america continue to invest in students and our to future workforce. and they've got to be trained and talented to focus on the challenges of the coming chal decades. so would you go through

. >> i guess we have the director elmendorf here. we should ask him that question and keep his feet to the fire as well. so i'll help you do that. but mr. chairman, you've done such a good job since i've been here of providing graphs so, i guess -- imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so i brought a couple graphs here today that i've been showing in wisconsin, to basically describe what i think is the problem facing our nation in terms of economic growth in our deficit and debt situation. certainly as i was reviewing the testimony that will be given just here today, my concern is that we're trying to address a problem of fal and i think we're seeing that in europe, and it just isn't working that way. one of the charts that i showed to groups in wisconsin, i turned smiling face into frowns is i describe the history of our debt. i like using this one because it shows in 1987, our total federal dead was 2.3 trillion. it took us 200 years to accumulate $2.3 trillion worth of debt and we entered an agreement last year to basically

doug elmendorf warning that economic growth is about to get worse. >> as you know, the pace of the recovery has been slow since the recession ended about two-and-a-half years ago, and we project it will continue to slow. according to our projections, we're only about halfway through the recession and aftermath. >> are there more people today or fewer people working today than on inauguration day of 2009? >> i believe the answer to that is there are fewer people, congressman. megyn: joining us now, charles payne with the fox business network. this guy had piece of bad news after piece of bad news as he testified before congress. economic growth is only going to be 2% this year and an anemia 1.1% next year. that's what he's saying. he says that the cbo estimates unemployment will not get above 8% in 2012 or 2013, and he says in 2012 they believe it's folk to be at 9.2% the whole year. i mean, you tell us, how pad is this? >> it's really bad. this takes us back to the summer of last year. you remember when everyone was talking about, megyn, about a double-dip recession. when you start talking

elmendorf knows this. there are a lot of very, very skilled people in this town that know how to read your reports and if taken out of context, or improperly allowed the debate to continue on the floor of the senate and the president to assert that this was a program that was going to make money for the government. that was not accurate. i felt pretty sort -- senator thune led the battle on it to try to point out it was not going to make money for the government, but that that you scored was used to reduce the cost of the president's plan. and that -- in the short run maybe it would have if it had been implemented. in the long run it would have been a cost. we do need to figure out how to use your scores more objectively. thank you. >> we work hard to try to explain ourselves and explain our numbers in a way that makes the most possible people understand them and fewest possible people misuse them. but as you know -- i don't think we always get that language just right. we work very hard at it. we are at l

his name is doug elmendorf. here are some points on testimony he gave to congress. key facts from the cbo's budget and economic outlook that made news this week. he told us a real economic growth was projected to be just 2.2% in 2012, falling to 1% in 2013. let's hear some of him in his own words. [video clip] >> to put the federal budget on a sustainable path, policy- makers will need to allow federal revenues to increase to a much higher percentage of gdp, average of the past 40 years, or they make large changes to social security and federal health -- health care programs, or pursue a combination of those strategies. host: our next call on our conversation about your local economy is john, a republican in asheville, north carolina. caller: thank you very much. i am part of the dying breed of republicans in asheville. as though it is heavily democratic and also have a concentrated with environmental non-profits, public interest nonprofits, racial interest nonprofits. above the one thing that has really hit asheville hard as we lost several major, major industries.

elmendorf. it shows that the cost of extending all the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts is four $0.50 trillion, which more than doubles the cumulative 10-year deficit under card call. it is just an indication of the magnitude of this issue and something we all have to tackle. i do have to put aside one issue, because if we do not fill that hole, it does not have any impact on the social security trust fund. senator kyl knows this and others know this. in 2010, we also had a payroll tax cut for a year that was not paid for. it did not take one penny out of the social security trust fund. and the social security trust fund trusty actuary has made that very clear, because we are transferring dollar for dollar money from the general fund into the social security trust fund, it has zero impact. with respect to the general fund, the issue is the same with respect to this payroll tax cut as it is for any tax cut, including tax cuts for folks at the very top, which gets back to my original point. i just ask that

. >> will, first of all, we don't usually have emen dorve on elmendorf on our show. >> he's a good guynd makes an important point. >> as excited as we are, it's legitimate to be excited about some of these numbers, bottom line is we are still well away from a real recovery and most thinking economists have told us that. >> that's right. >> there are unthinking economists? i hope i don't resemble that comment. >> they will tell you that it doesn't really have all that much to do with who wins in november. >> but it can have an effect. the historical averages on a credit bubble recession, when you've built up large amounts of debt, it's like seven years. in that process, if that's true, we're following that model, we're three to four years into a seven-year process. meaning expect three more years of slow growth out of this thing. what can politicians or how will your vote actually impact that? let me say this. short term, not a lot of things that can be done. i do believe and this is going to sound cliche, but conservatives believe in the principle of certainty. certainty on taxes. shou

elmendorf , will be on capitol hill today testifying before the house budget committee.e will have live coverage of that at 10:00 a.m. eastern time on c-span3. as i told you, the conferees meet again on the payroll tax cuts. that will be both house and senate conferees. go to our website, c-span.org. we will play it live at 10:00 a.m. on our website. that's all the news this morning on the economy coming out of these congressional budget office yesterday. atlanta, georgia. david is a ron paul supporter. we're talking about romney's win in florida and what it means going forward. caller: ron paul is the only candidate up on the stage that has a different position than any of the others, including president obama. he is the only anti-war candidate. he's the only candidate who wants to restore our civil liberties. host: ok. what do you make of his 7% last night in florida? caller: florida is a new winner- take-all state. he did not even with the effort force. i'm not sure he will get the nomination, but i sure will support him all the way. i think he is the only one who has

. >> congressional budget office director doug elmendorf testifies before the house budget committee. live this morning on c- span-3 at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> instead of campaigning in florida, ron paul is in nevada. he spoke tuesday night to a rally in henderson. >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. [chanting "ron paul"] thank you very much. thank you. if the enthusiasm wins an elections, we win hands down. this is great. this is nice. thank you for coming out. a little while ago i saw governor romney and congratulated him. >> [boo] >> no, i congratulated him. i said i would see him soon in the caucus states. you have been having a fantastic trip. not too long ago, we were up in maine. it was a fantastic reception. today we had businesses in colorado. they were fantastic. it looks like we have a few hundred here tonight to say the least. 1000 people. now, a few months ago there were 9 candidates. we are down to four. tonight as of statistics that we are in third place when comes to delegate -- i saw statistics that we are in their place when i

talk to congress about the overall fiscal situation, and i think it's very clear, and i'm sure doug elmendorf made a very clear presentation, that on current reasonable expectations about policy, that the u.s. federal deficit will become unsustainable within 15-20 years at the most, and possibly some of those effects will be even brought forward by markets. so, we clearly need some major changes in our fiscal planning and our fiscal paths going forward, and these are concerns. i want to emphasize these are concerns which are not just about our children 20 years from now but could have effects much sooner if markets begin to lose confidence in our nation's able to stabilize our debt burden. >> in followup to what senator portman said, do you believe that here in the congress, we need a greater urgency in addressing these issues, these structure issues? >> certainly, you do. in fairness to the hard working people here, i would say that there's still a lot of -- lack of clarity to some extent among the general public. i think people have conflicting views with what they want and everyone wants a

national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> and doug elmendorf testified tomorrow morning, the focus on the economic outlook that was released today. that is live on c-span3 tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> our "road to the white house coverage continues in a few moments with mitt romney. he won the florida primary tonight. his comments to supporters in tampa are next. in a little more than 20 minutes, we will hear from newt gingrich in orlando. he came in second. the other major republican presidential candidate, texas representative ron paul and bricks santorum are already campaigning in nevada for that state's caucuses on saturday. there events are coming up shortly. >> by 2016 according to the imf, the world's leading economy will be a communist dictatorship. that is in five years' time. think about that. if the imf is right the guy you elect next november will be the last president of the united states to preside over the world's leading economy. >> mark steyn has published nine books. his latest is the new york times best seller. he is a

his name is doug elmendorf. here are some points from testimony that he gave to congress. key facts from the cbo's budget and economic outlook made news this week. he told us real economic growth was projected to be just 2.2% in 2012, falling to 1% next year in 2013. he expects the unemployment rate to reach a .8% in 2012. his concerns about the budget, 20 so budget deficit is projected to equal $1 trillion. let's are some of him in his own words. >> to put the federal budget unsustainable path, policymakers will need to allow federal revenues to increase to a much higher percentage of gdp, and average over the past 40 years. or make very large changes in social security and federal health care programs, or pursue some combination of those strategies. >> host: our next call and our conversation about your local economy is john, republican and asheville, north carolina. good morning, john. >> caller: thank you very much. i'm part of the dying breed of republicans in asheville. i shall is a very heavily democratic area, and it's also heavily concentrated with environmental n

host: let me tell you what elmendorf had to say about the other side of the ledger which is if you keep tax cuts in place, here's what he had to say. >> in fiscal year 2013, county effects of extending all of these expiring tax provisions, meaning the 2001 and 2003 and 2009 cuts as well as trying to index the alternative minimum tax depletion, as well as extending the other tax credits and others that have been routinely extended, extending them into 2013 adds about $300 billion to the deficit in 2013. guest: we can't continue with this tax code because it's killing jobs. it's making it difficult to manufacture in this country and we need to encourage revenues to the government but we can see with -- we've done a lot of projections on just a flat rate tax code. mike pence and i have one that's about 18%. and it just -- millions of jobs flow out of that and you can always say, well, somebody's going to be paying more or somebody's going to be paying less taxes, but if we got a flat rate tax then people won't be locked in a bad job forever. we can improve our economy and opportunity for e

elmendorf has testified numerous times before the budget committee an indicated had it not been for the passage of the recovery bill, had it not been for abs of the federal reserve, economic growth today would be much slower. that would mean more people out of work, we need to do better, we need to get things moving faster, that's why we should take up the president's jobs bill that's been sitting in this house since september. that's why i hope the conference committee on the payroll tax cut extension for 160 million people will get our job done quickly so that we can provide those opportunities to help the economy grow when it's in this very fragile state. so mr. chairman, i just close by saying, we all want information, let's just not ask for information in a selective way designed to get a preconceived answer. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. price: i appreciate the gentleman's comments but it's clear, the revise red ports on the stimulus comes up and state it's costing more, costing the economy more. and that the jobs that a

. >> this week on "newsmakers" we have democratic congressional committee chair dougs elmendorf. -- steve israel. >> the wall street journal had you up 6% -- six points. the 25 seats you need to gain back the house, we have it at about 12 right now. how do you make this calculus work in more competitive districts, ones that may not have

elmendorf pointed out that under current law there will be massive fiscal contraction in 2013.ithout addressing any specific policies involved, i think congress should be aware of that and try to avoid having too big a hit on the recovery in 2013. finally, again, without taking specific policies, my third point was that fiscal policy is not just about total spending. a lot of it is the quality of the budget. are a lot of the things we are spending on, are they going to help our economy? do they support research and development, work-force skills, or other things will help the economy grow in the long run? on the tax side, we are moving towards more efficient tax cuts. you want to look at the top lines -- total spending a total taxes -- obviously, it makes a difference the quality of the programs, the way the money is spent, the way the money is collected. >> thank you mr. chairman. before i get to my questions, i want to thank you for the role you played during the current situation, which typing was a critical point for the country. i want to thank you for your transparency an

director douglas elmendorf wrote, and i quote, the secretary of health and human services has concluded the class program can't be operated without mandatory participation so as to ensure its solvency. h.h.s. secretary kathleen sebelius called the program insolvent and the chairman of the senate budget committee called the program, in 2009, a ponzi scheme. in fact he went on to say it woult make bernie madoff proud. in its consideration in 2009, the c.m.s. actuary, richard foster, told the obama administration staff that, and this is his quote, 36 years of actuarial experience lead me to believe that this program would collapse in short order and require significant federal subsidies to continue, end quote. he was ignored. in fact, he was eventually cut out of the email loop so that they didn't want to, the health committee on the senate side and the staff of senator kennedy they didn't want to hear any more from him. subsequently, in december of 2010, the president's fiscal commission recommended that they reform or repeal, not amend, but reform or repeal the class act. the commission

then the director got called over to the white house for a little wood shedding, although director elmendorf told me he wasn't wood sheded. he had a nice conversation with the president. after whatever you want to call it, his visiting to the white house, they went back and cut off a quarter of a trillion dollars from their estimate, basically. and said, well, it's more like around $800 billion is the projected cost. some of us weren't terribly surprised after it passed that c.b.o. then came back and said even though the president had said it would cost less than $1 trillion and we had projected it would cost more than $1 trillion, and then the president asked us to lower it and we took a new look and we lowered it to around $800 billion, now that it has passed after the president promises everybody it would cost less than $1 trillion, now it's passed, we look at it, you know what? it's really over $1 trillion that it will cost us. if we want to keep faith in c.b.o. and really figure out how much we can trust them, then maybe that is a good indication. that any projection from c.b.o. should

next, a house hearing on the 2012 the economy and spending which douglass element or -- elmendorf. later, q&a with navy secretary ray mabus. >> for more resources on the campaign, used embassies done website to watching videos, see what the candidates have said, and read the latest from social span.org.tes at c- >> douglas elmendorf testified about when new outlook. government spending and entitlement programs was one topic. other topics included the bush era who payroll tax cuts. overall they predict the deficit will run of 1.2 trillion dollars and economic recovery will remain slow with unemployment near 8%. this is to in a half hours. -- this is to end a half hours -- 2 and a half hours. >> the committee will come to order. there are difficult economic times ahead of us. i want to welcome the political director. good i want to thank your entire staff for their release. we have a compressed size line, given easter coming earlier, so we know that cdo is going to get pushed extra hard, and i know you are working around the clock, so i first want to start by saying thank you for all