We couldnt have had it in a more to say a more formal setting because it may been better attended. Im not sure any hearing we have had would be any more important in the spirit her witnesses will be the director of the Congressional Budget Office and jeans are darl who is the comptroller general of the United States in the head of the u. S. Government Accountability Office. With that i will make my Opening Statement and turned to Maggie Hassan my Ranking Member and then i think Ranking Member wise and for the entire committee for statement you would like to make as well. Again thank you all for being here. Im grateful to all who are joining us via the internet. Today we will address the topic a with refer to shy away from addressing her nations run away debt and deficit could when it comes to our Health Care Choices arent so easy. We exercise we want to relax and eat healthily when we preferred a splurge. These promote health and fitness and is worthwhile for her overall wellbeing. Similarly if you want to be strong as a nation we have to monitor fiscal position and keep revenues unfortunately we become the fiscally soft and flabby and the analogy to our own budget health. The debt is rise to 100 of gdp by 2023 which will be the highest in our nations history. They also project debt held by the public will be equal to 195 of gdp in 2050 if all goes well. And that is if all goes well. Meanwhile the highways of medicare and Social Security trust fund are on the drive path to insult the city insolvency. Cbos longterm report says just to get back to 2019 levels by 2050 we must have spending cuts and tax increases amounting to 2700. Person. Year and the longer we wait the worse it gets. This will not be an easy thing. The current coronavirus pandemic reminds us we live in an unpredictable world. Even our countries relatively short history we have seen powerful nations most recently the soviet union the first nation with a satellite the first nation to put a satellite in space back will collapse in 30 years. On that timeframe of the longterm cbo report i am not saying that the United States is like the soviet union or it will lead to a downfall. And instead im that the unthinkable happens all the time and we should not be so eric and as to assume our current position will last forever and does not need to be addressed. Since world war ii the United States has become the greatest economic power in the history of the world. We have used this power to maintain a long period of relative global peace. As part of our success we have enjoyed the benefits of their prosperous economy and a dominant role in foreign affairs. We cant take this for granted. One way we show complacency is by spending without thinking for the future which our inheritance and to face threats we need to stay strong and i think we all agree that our children and grandchildren will have their own challenges. One contribution we can make is not to leave them in a financial bind. Right now we are in a unique situation. I and others have advocated for an additional fiscal stimulus. Our failure to pass another relief package is much more to do with politics than a willingness to spend. Whether or not they really package gets passed we will spend trillions in Coronavirus Relief this year and number so massive we can hardly fathom it and its unpaid for it. The disagreement on exactly how much should be by congress is not saying efficient. When it comes to our current fiscal situation theres enough blame for all. I hope this wont go into conversation which is not a particularly productive. Nothing will be done without collaboration. As has been said so many times during this Coronavirus Crisis we are all in it together and when it comes to solving our debt and deficit making sure trust funds remain strong in there for those who need them we are truly all in it together. Polling suggests that people want to reign in the National Debt but i think we all know that addressing the issue there are tough tradeoffs. Theres no easy answer something that Congress Must lead on to do its job. The first problem some have argued deficits dont matter and i disagree and i think history disagrees. I hope to hear details from the witnesses about the scope of aware up against in a frank appraisal for the consequences of not acting. Thank you all for being here and i will now turn to senator hassan for her Opening Statement. Well thank you senator cassidy, thank you to directors slagle and comptroller general so darl for testifying today and for the work your entire team does for our country. This subcommittee is charged with promoting fiscal responsibility and Economic Growth because of course the two go handinhand predestination we must be concerned about the growth of the National Debt. Hits and if not handled carefully could threaten to slow the economy and jeopardize their ability to make key decisions in everything from innovation to National Security. The first at improving our nations fiscal outlook is improving any Economic Outlook of families businesses communities and states that have been hit hard by the covid19 virus. Yesterday Federal Reserve chair powell warned that quote too little support would lead to a weak recovery with unnecessary hardships for households and businesses matt. Providing assistance to families who cant make ends meet and helping hardhit this is a stay afloat is not only the right thing to do, its all go also the fiscally responsible thing to do. It will help ensure that families can pay their rent and buy groceries at their local store and Small Businesses can continue to employ their workers which will help keep local economies moving and improve our nations Economic Outlook. The second step to getting our nations fiscal house in order after the recovery from covid19 is for congress to implement commonsense bipartisan measures that promote fiscal responsibility and reduce the National Debt. As recommended by gao we need to address the socalled tax gap which comes from corporations and millionaires avoiding taxes by underreporting income to the treasury. We need to revisit the partisan tax giveaways that were jammed through congress in 2017 in order to ensure that major corporations are paying their fair share in taxes. And we need to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government. One of my Top Priorities is the Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on federal spending oversight. In seeking a bipartisan path to improving our fiscal standing Congress Must also strengthen and protect Social Security and medicare while making it absolutely clear that seniors will receive the full benefits that they have earned over a lifetime of work. Overall it is clear that once we have recovered from covid19 the sooner we address the National Debt the better. As shown by cbo and gao the difficulties of addressing the baseball outlook only compound over time making it all the more pressing that we Work Together in a bipartisan way to get through the crisis and then develop fiscally responsible longterm plans. Senator cassidy and look forward to working with you and the other members of the finance committee and i took forward to hearing from direct your slagle and comptroller general zardaro on ways to control her baseball outlook. Senate thank you senator hassan i think rookie member biden would like to speak. Thank you very much mr. Chairman and i see we have been joined by her colleague senator scott and also senator carper. We have a good contention of finance operators alike to want to thank the cbo director who worked so closely with us on the Prescription Drug bill that we worked to get out of the finance committee and opportunities for fresh approaches that create incentives to hold down the subsidies when theres pricegouging. Eugene zardaro has done good professional work and we are so appreciative of him. Chairman cassidy Ranking Member hassan im glad you have put this hearing together. Senator hassan has in my view been the Gold Standard for elected officials in showing that you can care deeply about the human needs of our people and do it in a fiscally responsible way. The two are not mutually exclusive. You can do both and i so appreciate her leadership and i agree with so much of which she has said then for her or Opening Statement but im joining you from my dining room table in southeast portland this morning and i hope that everybody participating and watching is healthy and safe. I would like to make just a few key points mr. Chairman and i will put my full statement in the record. Without the okay with you mr. Chairman . Very good. First apropos of senator hassans point i think Jerome Powells statement yesterday ought to be required reading every Single Member of congress because he laid out so clearly and in an objective way back by the nonpartisan fact urban approach that they have at the fed what is at stake here so i think he summed up my view very clearly and i think obviously if you walked into a coffee shop in america most people wouldnt be talking about the fiscal outlook but i think this topic is going to dominate a lot of the discussion in the years ahead. I will just say when you set aside all the fiscal lingo this is a debate about whether congress ought to lock in Social Security medicare and medicaid down the road. This is a far right republican agenda behind a bunch of vague buzzwords for the purse i think its a recipe for a nightmare and middleclass households. The country has only recovered half the jobs lost since the pandemic it. 600dollar enhanced unemployment bill that we worked so hard for will allow millions of families in america to make rent and buy groceries and also as has now been reported will do an awful lot to keep the economy afloat. It has expired now. Republicans blocked the extension for permanent job losses and corporate layoffs are stacking up and im concerned this report i just saw people jumping out of the workforce because they thought there was an opportunity for them to get ahead. The patchwork of policies holds back an avalanche and millions of americans lost their health care when they lost their job. Over the months of september alone, just one month colleagues, nearly a million women dropped out of the workforce which is why i have been looking at those numbers with such care. The economy has still got a lot of open wounds here and yet a lot of people on the far right and conservative republicans say cut, and apparently those are the folks who dont want another Major Economic rescue package and i think we need one. I think we need to make sure if you are laid off through no fault of your own that you have an opportunity to make rent and pay groceries and get the Unemployment Benefits. You arent using them to buy a bunch of fancy scars from europe. I think thats why the safety net is so important and why we should oppose cuts to programs like Social Security medicare and medicaid. The other point i just want to make raised by senator hassan very eloquently, we have seen substantial evidence just in the last few weeks that donald trump is a tax cheat so to me it is absurd for republicans in congress to tell working people they are the ones what the sacrifice in order to clean up americas finances. Americans have not forgotten that in effect there was a fiscal time bomb put in place in 2017 when republicans passed that tax handouts for corporations. Those tax handouts had a a 2 trillion. Thats what we are talking about here, and appropriately so. How we can care for the needs of people and be fiscally responsible. We were told that tax that would pay for itself and we have seen a price tag of 2 trillion hand obviously that had people, and say we acted Medicare Medicaid and Social Security. Thats the republican playbook we have seen too many times corporate goodies defense contractors and handouts to the top and once the recession arrives you strike programs that are for the middleclass and hardworking people. It seems to me when you have million of people out of work a lot longer than we have seen before we have got to make sure we are putting in place policies that keep it from happening again. Theres a lot of work for the congress to do. I see colleagues who have worked very closely particularly chairman cassidy to find Common Ground on Prescription Drugs and i very much appreciate that for the next congress is going to have to keep medicare out of his solvency and bring down Prescription Drug prices and im sure we will talk about some of the challenges to the Medicare Trust fund given the this hit that the economy is taken and what its meant to the program. Finally i think we understand this is why appreciate senator hassans comments, we have got to make some important investments and do that in a way thats fiscally responsible. That is infrastructure roads, ports and clean energy and broadband. Those are challenges that cannot wait. We have a lot of heavy lifting to do. Tax policy has always been priority business for the finance committee. I will just say one member makes a lot more sense to crack down on tax cheats like donald trump rather than inflicting harsh cuts on working americans but i look forward to working with my colleagues and i appreciate this hearing and particularly to have our experts bill slagle and gene zardaro here. They do it at the look and they give us good hard work and we appreciate their professionalism. Thank you mr. Chairman. It is an Election Year but to correct the record President Trump has not oppose cuts on either medicare or Social Security. Mr. Chairman i will not prolong this. I will give you for the record that tax reduction funds for medicare and entitlement or grams and we can make that part of the record and i will include it. I will make part of the record they president s statement in regards to protecting those state funds. With that said the Unemployment Benefits negotiating a deal but that was not accepted by speaker pelosi. Mr. Slagle became the 10th director of the Congressional Budget Office in june of 2019. Previously professor at the university of Maryland School of Public Policy scholar at the American Enterprise institute. He has taught at northwestern university, the university of chicagos school of business and george time georgetown university. Dr. Sim seven has served as senior economist at the council of economic advisers at the white house and an economist at the Federal Reserve warned in the International Monetary fund. He has earned his ph. D. In economics from Harvard University and his a. B. In economics from mr. Zardaro became the eight comptroller general of United States and Accountability Office on december 22 of 2010. When he was confirmed by the u. S. Senate. He has served as acting comptroller general since march of 08 and mr. Zardaro has held a number of leadership positions during his long career gao dating back more than 45 years including chief operating officer and head of gao Information Management division. He has pulled bashurs degree in accounting. Welcome mr. Navarro and i will turn to mr. Swegle for his fiveminute statement. Thank you and good after chairman cassidy ranked member hassan and members of the committee thank you for inviting me to testify and its a pleasure to testify with gene dardaro. We benefit immensely from the work of gao. The fiscal outlook is a tale of two horizons. No longer turn the nations fiscal challenges are daunting. At the time the United States is not facing an immediate fiscal crisis. The debt is manageable for now and fiscal policy could be used to address National Priorities if the congress chose to do so. In our projections Interest Rates remain low as the economy recovers from the effects of the pandemic because the Federal Reserve is working to keep them low. At the same time the federal debt is already high and reaching 195 of gdp by 2050 at the e