In defending President Obama’s health care law in the wake of a Congressional Budget Office finding that it would create disincentives to work, Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, invoked Social Security and Medicare.

“I have no doubt that if, for example, we got rid of Social Security and Medicare, there are many 95-year-olds that would choose to work more to avoid potentially starving or to give themselves an opportunity to get health care,” Furman said Tuesday. “I don’t think anyone would say that was a compelling argument to eliminate Social Security and Medicare.”