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

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919/fiscal-policy-data-and-democracy-insights-from-former-cbo-director-doug-elmendorf
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919/fiscal-policy-data-and-democracy-insights-from-former-cbo-director-doug-elmendorf.md
Podcast: [The PolicyViz Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919)
Published: 2025-09-30T14:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://zencastr.com/z/TdAoQp2d
Audio file: https://redirect.zencastr.com/r/episode/68db1b82f012f459c2746af9/size/42868623/audio-files/5a0b59c06ebaa2000f259f8d/c6d393b9-060e-4c2a-b3f0-20121b54adef.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919/episodes/fiscal-policy-data-and-democracy-insights-from-former-cbo-director-doug-elmendorf
Duration seconds: 1768

## Resource

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. Subscribe to the PolicyViz Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Become a patron of the PolicyViz Podcast [https://patreon.com/policyviz?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] for as little as a buck a month Follow me on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/jschwabish/?hl=en], LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanschwabish/], Substack [https://jschwabish.substack.com/], Twitter [https://twitter.com/jschwabish], Website [https://policyviz.com/], YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/c/JonSchwabish] Email: jon@policyviz.com [jschwabish@gmail.com]

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