Doug Elmendorf Quotes

United States, Economist
April 16, 1962

Douglas William Elmendorf is an American economist who is the dean and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He previously served as the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) from 2009 to 2015. He was a Brookings Institution senior fellow from 2007 to 2009, and briefly in 2015 following his time at the CBO, and was a director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings.

Yes. We do think that the stimulus package is raising GDP and raising employment relative to what would have happened otherwise.

Doug Elmendorf
I think that the reaction to CBO’s analysis is a very reassuring sign that we are not in a post-factual world.

Doug Elmendorf
- World
- Analysis
- Sign

We do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount and, on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.

Doug Elmendorf
- Health
- Responsibility
On the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.

Doug Elmendorf
CBO’s job is to do the analysis, and let the chips fall where they may.

Doug Elmendorf
- Fall
- Analysis
- Chips
We’re spending more, we’re spending in places that people mostly like, and yet, in the abstract, people don’t much like government spending because it means higher taxes. So until we come clean with ourselves about that, it’s very hard to figure out what we should do about the budget.

Doug Elmendorf
- People
- Government
- Taxes
This legislation will cut subsidies substantially; millions of people will lose health insurance, but certainly people will be worse off.

Doug Elmendorf
- People
- To Be
- Worse
I believe the Kennedy School needs to study both failures and successes of government, and we anticipated that students would have learned from engaging with and questioning Governor Snyder about his consequential role in decisions regarding Flint and many other issues during his eight years in office.

Doug Elmendorf
- Government
- Study
- Role

The outlook for the Federal budget is bleak.

Doug Elmendorf