Fiscal Policy, Data, and Democracy: Insights from Former CBO Director Doug Elmendorf

Welcome back to the show! In this week's episode, I sit down with Doug Elmendorf, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, to talk about the impact of government shutdowns, the challenges of fiscal sustainability, and the importance of independent statistical agencies. We discuss how shutdowns ripple through the economy and people’s lives, the tough choices facing policymakers on entitlements and deficits, and why compromise is vital to our democracy. Doug also shares his perspective on the independence of federal statistical agencies, the role of private sector data, and the optimism he sees in today’s policy students. It’s a wide-ranging conversation about economics, governance, and the future of public service.

You can listen to Fiscal Policy, Data, and Democracy: Insights from Former CBO Director Doug Elmendorf online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Fiscal Policy, Data, and Democracy: Insights from Former CBO Director Doug Elmendorf is an episode from The PolicyViz Podcast by The PolicyViz Podcast.

This episode is 29:28 long.

This episode was published on Sep 30, 2025.

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