. >> a discussion about the economy and concerns about recession with wendy atul berg of the brookings institution she is the director of the hamilton project and a senior fellow, and also the former chief economist of the congressional budget office and served in that position from 2019 to 2020 good morning and thank you for joining us. guest: happy to be here. host: when it comes to the latest noons, can you put this in perspective what this letter means and particularly the discussion it will foster for the debt ceiling? guest: it's not good. the way to think about the debt ceiling is like this. the u.s. taxpayer owes people money. we owe investors money who have bought securities, we owe federal workers who have been working on behalf of u.s. taxpayers. we owe medicaid and medicare doctors money and we have obligations to people who expect to receive their social security benefits. , we owe federal workers who have been working on behalf of u.s. taxpayers. we owe medicaid and medicare doctors money and we have obligations to people who expect to receive their social security benefi