our guest today is douglas elmendorf director of the congressional budget office. this is his fifth visit with our group and there is probably a trend there. mr. elmendorf became director of the cbo in june of 2009 and brings an impressive background to the assignment. his undergraduate degrees from princeton phi beta kappa and his masters and doctorate in economics or from harvard. he a4 been named cbo director he taught at harvard and was on the staff of the council of economic advisers and the federal reserve ordinance served as treasury secretary for economic policy. just before his selection as head of the cbo he was senior fellow in economic studies program at brookings. the biographical portion of our program has ended and now on they botanical details as always we are in the record here. please no live blogging or trading or other means of riling while the breakfast is underway. there is no embargo when the session ends except that our friends at c-span have agreed not to air the video of --

words about democrat overspending came moments before the nonpartisan congressional office chief douglas elmendorf, also warned about the run-away debt. >> such large and growing federal debt could have serious negative consequences including restraining economic growth in the long term, giving policymakers less flexibility to respond to unexpected changes and eventually the risk of a fiscal crisis. >> on the senate side, harry reid praised boehner's decision. >> i commend speaker boehner for doing the right thing. >> but he threw this barb at house conservatives. >> i put nothing past a tea party driven congress. >> the call for a clean vote stand in stark contrast to what they breached in the george w. bush administration. >> this 110th congress will commit itself to a higher standard. pay as you go, no new deficit spending. >> with the treasury's borrowing authority running out on february 27th, the clock is ticking on the debt ceiling. the house is in recess for two weeks starting thursday. just as the snowstorm may paralyze washington, at least those parts of the city not already paralyzed by

to all of this, the director of the cbo, douglas elmendorf defended the report, saying "our analysis is completely consistent with the latest thinking in the economic profession." walmart's possible support for raising the minimum wage is joined by costco, which predicts it would reduce turnover. on the other side, those lobbying congress against raising it include yum brands--owner of taco bell, k-f-c and pizza hut...and darden restaurants, which owns olive garden and red lobster. retired chicago teachers, police officers and other public sector workers... are protesting possible pension cuts. the retirees staged a demonstration wednesday at the illinois state capitol similar to protests last year. a union representing retired workers claims a typical retired teacher could lose $700 per month in pension payments. chicago mayor rahm amanuel says the city faces a massive hike in pensions it can't afford to pay. illinois lawmakers have already approved pension cuts for state workers. and... the job market is proving to be a "talent show." payscale reports employers are growing more afr

. >> douglas elmendorf continues to give them campaign fodder by declaring the law will smark some lower income americans to lower their work hours to avoid losing government subsidsubsidi leading the positions to drop by 2 million positions. >> rise in their income, join the middle class. this means fewer people will do that. that's why i'm troubled by this. >> yet after a day on defense over the report, democrats went on offense today. pushing back hard on republican charges the cbo was confirming the law is killing jobs. >> when the media immediately takes the republican talking points and prints them, it does a great disservice to the public. >> in facts, chris van holland reported it also says it will help the unempl ploployment rats down. and the cbo director also made clear in his testimony there's a difference between someone who loses their job and people choosing on their own not to work. >> if somebody comes to you and says i have decided to retire or decided to stay home to spend more time with my family or decided to spend more time doing my hobby, they don't feel bad about

live to capitol hill for remarks from douglas elmendorf. increased as a result of the affordable care act? >> we stand by that. >> job growth and what we need is more of it. one of the things concerning to me as policymakers is that you have indicated in discretionary opportunity in rebuilding america, infrastructure, innovation, in the next 10 years we will see the lowest investment in those things that affect people an opportunity. since 1940? spending anderal interest on the debt. of programsion together, spending will be smaller than at any point since 1940. builds their countries to invest in clean energy and so on. opposite.ng in the i want to underscore when you talk about economic growth, we care about long-term deficits and we want to stay on a path of fiscal responsibility. growing would do a lot creating jobs to mitigate that. i want to go back one more time. i feel like we're speaking two languages on the committee as it relates to the affordable care act. as it relatesyou to the ability for people to have freedoms to make decis

in the meantime, cbo director douglas elmendorf breaking down on capitol hill telling them obamacare, in effect, encourages people not to work. >> by providing heavily subsidized health insurance to people with low in come and with drawing those subsidies as in come rises, the act creates a disincentive for people to work relative to what would have been the case in the absence of that act. these subsidies make those lower in come people better off. this is an implicit tax. >> stephen diamond is a staff writer and my guest today. so much to get through on this. there was a lot that came out yesterday when this happened about inaccuracies. now hearing jay carney calling the cbo inaccurate, what do you make of that? >> there's no much choice. they have to dispute it and they have. they can't dispute the numbers. they say the press has gotten it wrong. focusing on the number of people who are going to have an incentive to work less as you've heard, you're talking about 2 million people who choose to drop out of the labor force, essentially work less or work not at all because subsidies m

it was the topic of today's house committee hearing with cb off the director douglas elmendorf. >> theres a critical difference between people who would like to work and can't find a job or have a job that is lost for reasons beyond their control and people who choose not to work. >> the equivalent of 2 million full-time jobs are people that look at the benefits they're getting under obamacare and say, look, it's better for me just to stay and not work. because i get those benefits. is that right? >> to not work or to work fewer hours, yes. >> the white house is also pushing to clarify the report. that is where we find nbc's peter alexander. what is the latest? >> reporter: obviously that hearing certainly turned into a lot of partisan finger pointing. republicans used words like devastating and terrible. the white house obviously is pushing back because there is so much more nuance than the headlines unusually published. and the three key words we heard today from anyone you speak to including jay carney are freedom, opportunity and choice. that is the way they want to frame this debate

but bottom line, the senator was alluding to the cbo report, douglas elmendorf's report we're going toe at least 2 million jobs because of obamacare. what you said, harris, exactly right. our economy isn't working. we're not creating jobs and the democratic incredibly are saying we're giving people choice whether they stay home or work. >> the fantasy being perpetrated by the democrats in defense of the indefensible, which is a law that doesn't work. my god, i think they would say pearl harbor was a success. >> i wouldn't go that far. >> these are people who get up in the face of what, telling the american people to their face that they're idiots. >> i think back on '08 when senator obama was running. and he kept talking, he wanted to be a transformational president. and this thing that was just announced by the head of the congressional budget office, is the transformation, which is it's a good thing that people are choosing not to work and we're subsidizing them not to work. from obama's point of view, that's what he wants. i don't think the majority of americans want that. >> by the

the cbo's douglas elmendorf repeatedly set the record straight.he cbo, itself, answered this frequently asked question. will 2.5 million people lose their jobs in 2024 because of the aca? answer, no, we would not describe our estimates in that way. we did this ourselves, an entire segment last week. look at the segment we ran last week is being portrayed on breitbart.com. msnbc's chris hayes acknowledges full-time job losses due to obamacare. "all in" anchor was joined by ben domenech to discuss recent revelations out of the cbo that obamacare and the subsidies will increase the number of full-time jobs. hayes admitted that was the case but suggested a decrease in workforce participation isn't necessarily a bad thing. of course, i said no such thing. in fact, the whole point of the segment is there's a difference between jobs and hours worked that's going to change, according to cbo, is the number of hours worked. the number of hours people want to work. a simple distinction. i had a good faith discussion with ben about how there's going to be a d

director douglas elmendorf testifies before the house budget committee about that report. you can see that live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on our companion etwork, c-span2. jason furman, the chairman of the white house council of economic advisors, spoke to reporters today about that c.b.o. report. he answered questions in the white house briefing room for about 45 minutes. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. i hope you all are well. thanks for your patience. as you can see, i have with me today jason furman, the chairman of the president's council of economic advisors. because i know there's interest in today's c.b.o. report, i asked jason to join me. he will say a few words at the top, then take questions from you on that subject and others elated to his expertise. i enjoy having other people making sentences for me so it's good to have jason here to do this work and i will stand by for questions on other subjects. so if you take all your questions related to matters that jason handles at the top, i'll be here for when he goes. thanks. >> thank you very much, jay. wanted

. >> we more now from the conference with congressional budget office dreck or douglas elmendorf. he discussed the most recent budget and economic outlook. this is 35 minutes. >> good morning again. it feels like i'm drinking out of a fire hose after that talk for sure and actually after the last couple of talks so i'm pleased we have been having such excitement this morning. doug elmendorf became the eighth director the congressional budget office on january 22, 2009. he brings to us today an impressive background to his assignment. his undergraduate degree is from princeton phi beta kappa and received his master's and doctorate from harvard. one of this dissertation committee member spoke to us this morning larry summers. we also had marty feldstein and greg. our speaker was previously an assistant professor at harvard served on the staff of counsel of economic risers for the federal reserve board federal reserve board and deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the treasury. before he became cbo doug was a senior fellow at the economic studies program at the brookings

congressional budget office director douglas elmendorf made it plain. >> can i say, congressman, therm lost jobs, there's a critical difference between people who have a job and can't find a job or have a job lost for reasons beyond their control or people who choose don't to work. if someone says, i've decided to retire or decided to spend more time with my family or decide to spend more time doing my hobby, they don't feel bad, they feel good, and we don't sympathize, we say congratulations. >> helping the cbo director clear the record was none other than congressman paul ryan, the republican from wisconsin was still troubled by the report, because as he put it, the affordable care act makes it too easy for americans to choose, quote, not to get on the ladder of life, to begin working, getting the dignity of work, getting more opportunities, rising the income, joining the middle class. but while ryan and other republicans talk about the dignity of work, they fail to acknowledge that even those who want to work are not finding work and their government is failing to sport them. case

national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] douglas elmendorf is expected before the house budget committee. however coverage begins at 10 a.m. eastern on c-span 2. you can also join the conversation on facebook and twitter. on c-span 3, the irs commissioner will testify. we will get an update on some of the ongoing unorthodox investigations. live coverage starts at 9:30 a.m. eastern. the director of the defense intelligence agency talked at the house intelligence committee of the damage caused by the leak of information by edward snowden. >> i have a lot more questions. i do one you get to the defense intelligence he agency report that was recently made available to that committee that i think was the first agency to complete its review of the stolen information of the -- by the nsa contractor. and your professional opinion, do you believe these leaks will cost american lives on the battlefield either now or in the future? >> i do. >> if it makes it harder to counter the threats by ied's used by forces in afghanistan -- >> i believe you will fa

douglas elmendorf was before the house budget committee for two and a half hours. >> the hearing will come to order. hello everybody and welcome. i first want to thank director elmendorf for joining us. we appreciate your time to be with us today and we know this baseline was late because congress was a little late so i'm glad we had time to get to this. you have put together a very informative report. it does a great job of laying out the challenges we face. my main take away is this. we still have a lot of work to do. this year we are going to run a deficit of $514 billion. that's less than last years but it's nothing to brag about. in fact the deficit will start growing in just two years. by 2022 we will be running trillion dollar deficits again even though we will be taking in a historically large share of revenue so even though taxes are at a historic way high place we still have trillion dollar deficits in the future and that is because spending will be growing twice as fast as revenue. over the next 10 years we will add $10 trillion more toward national debt for a grand total o

at the house budget committee today, you're probably aware of this, douglas elmendorf, head of cbo, ridgelyaid that the affordable care act creates a disincentive for people to work. he was asked about that later on. clarify that and said it's less of an incentive to work. getting back to the discussion, i know the fact checkers and so forth have lined up and saying that are not jobs being cut as a result of the affordable care act, but what about that component that there might be a disincentive for work? >> here's what i think. first of all i want to commend the many news organizations that are very forthright manner issued a correction to the initial headlines that misrepresented on a factual basis what the cbo is reporting. those headlines continue to be spouted by republicans and some networks as fact but they are just false. as you heard investment today that you just cited. that is not what the report said. the report says that in addition to substantially cutting the deficit, in addition to spurring job creation and economic growth in the midterm, in addition to ensuring millions of

douglas elmendorf was just kidding? also susan says we need to listen to the entire testimony. the number refers to the number of people who won't have to work in order to have health insurance. a couple more who say if you're between dixie two and 65 and you want to retire aca is a godsend. not everyone wants to wait until 65 when medicare kicks in. judy says the wealth distribution built sold to americans as affordable health care has been killing jobs since the first aid emerged. hillsboro, virginia, republican line. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. six years ago the government wants us all on the dole. it is coming true. they've reduced the middle class and we will soon all be of one class. this is not america. the republicans need to take a hold of the senate and they need to clear harry reid status. he has bills that would save america. why doesn't the president go over there and clear the task and let's vote on the stuff that is very important? >> host: on the issue coming out of the potential loss of jobs due to the affordable care act, a tweet from lord andrew

[inaudible conversations] >> earlier today, congressional budget office director, douglas elmendorf on the impact of the health care law. here is more now. >> i've a few questions about the health care law in respect to the labor market. what is your best estimate of the effects that obamacare will have on the total number of our search, which is the issue we are talking about. i want to make sure we accurately understand what you're saying. >> ray. we think the affordable care act will reduce the total numbers of hours worked by 1.5% to two between 2017 in 2024 relative to what would've happened. >> what is that an equivalent fte full-time criminal coworkers? >> given the fact -- the calculation return, to translate that suggests between two and 2.5 million reduction of full-time equivalent employment. >> to make sure everybody understands this, reading the report 2 million equivalent in 2017, 2.3 million equivalent to 2021 and 2.5 equivalent in 2024. just to understand this, it is not that employers are laying people off. it is that people are working in the workforce, aren't supplyi

douglas elmendorf, the guy who runs the congressional budget office, which is supposed to be nonpartisan, said this about that. >> by providing heavily subsidized health insurance to people with very low income and then withdrawing those subsidies as income rises, the act creates a disincentive for people to work relative to what would have been the case in the absence of that act. these subsidies, of course, make those lower-income people better off. this is an implicit tax, not the tax we normally think about where the government raises our taxes we are worse off and creates a disincentive to work more. providing a subsidy people are better off but have less incentive to work. >> as suspected now confirmed by the head of the c.b.o. there. again, nonpartisan. charles krauthammer asking a great question again and again. is this the american way? i'm not sure. >> this is the liberals idea of the opportunity society. of course in a free society you can decide if you want to work. but what obamacare does is you can then choose not to work. and the people who do work end up subs dying you. -