joining us now to parse the washington numbers game is peter orzag, global banking vice chair at citigroup. he served as director of the office of management and budget and the congressional budget office. and peter, thanks for being here. >> great to be with you. >> let's talk about these numbers. the cbo said the gradual increase by july of 2016 would eliminate 500,000 jobs, but it would lift 900,000 americans out of poverty. do you believe these numbers? >> look, the things where -- it's purely mechanical. cbo said that 16 million workers would be helped, and almost a million, 900,000 would be lifted out of poverty. there's very little judgment there. that's just literally a mechanical application of let's look at where workers are in the income distribution and what will -- what the impact will be. where the judgment came in is with regard to that 500,000 job loss figure that you mentioned. >> right. >> i have to say that while there is a range of views, my own perspective is that's on the high side if you read appendix a of their report. the underlying study, my own read, suggests the