United Liberty

Two of President Barack Obama’s economic advisers are now predicting high unemployment for years to come.

Larry Summers said it on Saturday:

The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession.

“The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”

Christina Romer repeated it again yesterday:

White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer said that, in 2010, the economy will likely grow but the jobless rate will peak at 10 percent and won’t start falling at a rapid clip.

The administration and independent economists expect next year “steady but not-over-the top GDP growth” of between 2 to 3 percent, Romer told The Hill.

“That will bring unemployment down slowly but not by big movements, unemployment on the right trajectory but not coming down for what we or American people would need or like,” Romer said.

I thought unemployment wasn’t supposed to get past 8% with the so-called economic “stimulus” bill. It’s hard to claim that jobs are being “created” or “saved” when unemployment is high. Bad news for Democrats looking at tough races next year.