Rather than diving into salary freezes, furloughs or other federal workforce measures for cutting government costs, the congressional “super committee” created by the debt ceiling deal instead bantered more about unemployment and war funding during its first public session Wednesday.

After months of legislation that would have imposed staff reductions and furloughs, along with a salary freeze that did go into effect, federal employees were concerned they would be a prime target for the panel. Instead, Federal Daily reported, the members of Congress appointed to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction heard testimony by Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and talked about unemployment and war funding.

“We all agree that we’re facing an unsustainable financial future, and under the CBO’s alternative fiscal scenario, the debt is going to reach 82 percent of GDP by 2021,” Federal Daily quoted Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as saying during the session. “It’s higher than in any year since 1948, and we all agree that we can’t let that happen.”

Federal Daily also reported that Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said the fastest and most efficient way to reduce the deficit long term is to lower unemployment and to take a balanced approach that contains savings achieved from modernizing certain programs, as well as savings gained from simplifying.

Finally, Elmendorf pointed to the aging population and increasing costs for health care as factors that will push up federal spending, requiring significant changes in spending policies and tax policies.

But changes must be thought through and cannot be done haphazardly, Elmendorf warned.

“Implementing spending cuts or tax increases abruptly would give families, businesses and state and local government little time to plan and adjust,” he said.