Even in 2016, White House Admits Unemployment Won't Drop to Bush Era Levels

Two years from now, you'll wish it was still 2008, the last year of the Bush administration when unemployment was only 7%, at least according to a new report by Obama's economic advisers. That's right. The White House Council of Economic Advisers is predicting massive unemployment for years to come and an inability to correct the economy in a way that will create enough jobs to put most Americans back to work. As it turns out, 2008 was Obama's best year. Who knew?

In their new economic report, entitled Bush's Last Year: Those Were the Days! (okay, it's actually called the less flashy Economic Report of the President), the group forecasts 10% unemployment for all of 2010, with the number of people looking for full-time work much higher. Even worse, they expect unemployment to stay above 8% through 2012. Only by 2015 are they predicting the possibility of 6% unemployment, still almost a full percentage point higher than the average during the Bush years.

While employment is generally said to be a lagging indicator of a recovery, that's still quite a lag. In fact, what they are admitting is that their policies will fail. They are throwing up their hands and saying, "This is the best we can do. We can't bring the country back to the economic prosperity and low unemployment Americans enjoyed between 2000 and 2007." And here I thought Hope meant hope for the best, not hope for mediocrity. Does the president still want to give himself a B+?

The unemployment rate reached a low of 4.4% under Bush (which, by the way, Democrats laughably complained about), and now this White House is saying that benchmark is no longer achievable. Not even six years from now. In other words, the next president will "inherit" a worse economy from Obama than Obama "inherited" from Bush. Not to mention the massive amount of debt from the porkulus bill and runaway Democratic spending.

This is a rare moment of liberal honesty, and we should commend them for telling the truth. Their policies can't do any better, aren't designed to do any better, because that's not their intention. Redistribution of wealth doesn't create wealth. It kills the incentives to produce it. And liberal Democrats are okay with this. Progressives would be just fine with everyone making do with less. Unemployment in the teens doesn't faze them one bit, because there's less inequality when more people are unemployed. Besides, why worry about destroying the private sector when you work for the state? The private sector is for suckers.

Adds Douglas McIntyre at 24/7 Wall St:

"The numbers provided by the Council of Economic Advisers call into question not only the effectiveness of past programs but also those proposed to help stop the bleeding of jobs. Unemployment which could linger above 8% for another two years will continue to cripple consumer spending which in turn will make a full recovery as measured by GDP nearly impossible."

Under the best scenario of the Democrats plans, 1 in 12 Americans will be looking for work as Obama finishes his first (and hopefully only) term, and liberals are publicizing this as a success. So much for championing the working people. So much for championing work.