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you can have that one. i won't agree on the growth thing. the top thing here would be to have better economic growth. this is a side show and it raises hopes inappropriately. let's get serious about having a better recovery and that would be much better. >> well, guys we have to leave it there -- >> 24 million -- >> jared bernstein, doug holtz eken. wind up and go with you guys. i love it. i had three more full screens, graphics i wanted to go through. >> too bad. >> we'll do that next time, my friends. it all comes down to one game, team usa and team canada, right, facing off for the gold on women's hockey at this very moment. i'm going to take you live to sochi when we come back for today's women's action.
because. you look at the earnings that come out of raising the mill wage, they don't go to people in poverty. only 19% of it according to the cbo. this doesn't target that population and it does hurt the group we worry about, low-skilled worker, 500,000 of which will not find a job to. put that in perspective. the two big wage employment sectors are eating and drinking places. that's a year's worth of job growth. if wasn't to put on hold jobs for a year, that's fine, go ahead. >> let me respond. first of all, i completely agree and appreciate, doug, beginning where he did. with an emphasis on improvement in recovery is the best policy for all workers throughout the pay scale. >> that's true. >> on the poverty points are i strongly disagree in the following sense. 70% of the benefits go to families whose incomes are below 50,000. so doug is right. it doesn't just go to the
employers would give a bump to. that's over 24 million workers who get a pay hike to this policy, according to cbo, 500,000 employee lost. so there say cost to this. if you factor that in, this is a program that has a 98% success rate. that is, it helps 98% of the people it targets. and i challenge you to find another program that does this much good to folks that kneeled the income this much at no cost to the federal budget. >> okay. my friend, you've got a bigger brain than i do when it comes to this stuff. your challenge will go do doug. doug, jared challenges you to come up with a better plan. is there one out there? >> let's first stipulate that the interest in this is not politics. this has been a subpar recovery for not just those who can't find a job but those who have jobs and seen real wages and income rise. it's a real problem that needs to be addressed. i'm not a fan of this approach,
an income you could have and give it to someone else who might have $50,000. that's a terrible redistribution. that 500,000 is a number to worry about. it's a big part of the labor force that's been hurt badly in the reception. >> first of all, i think the cbo high-balled the number a bit. let's say it's 250, 270,000, something like that, again, i'd be very hard-pressed not to help 25 or 23 million people. you're right to frame the question for them. doug said the answer. we can get back to full employment as quickly as possible so get get back in the labor market with a better job. >> so jared bernstein bringing up a spock quote there. the good of the many. >> may the force -- i can't do it. >> i'm glad my good friend jared is the one indifferent to the low-low income people. >> i want them to get a better job. >> that's fine, jared.
doug holtz eken is a former c bchtcbo director and advisor. explain how the cost of living adjustment is determined and the law that decides whether an adjustment happens or not. >> it is in the law that you do it look at inflation over the previous year, look from the previous september to the current september, and in this case there wasn't any cost of living increase. inflation's flat. in those circumstances those who are already retired do not see their retirement checks bumped up because there is no inflation. >> how do they measure this? i'll be honest, i talk to my own family members who are on social security, their condo fees have gone up, their cable bill as gone up, internet be, different things that's their cost of living, power, has gone up. they haven't seen it flat-line. how does this -- what measurement does this use to decide cost of living increase? >> we have an alphabet soup of