As President Obama struggles at the polls while the economy continues to slag, some economists have been questioning how much this president (or any other) could actually do to jump start an economy that was in horrible shape when he inherited the office in January in 2009, and despite some growth, now appears to be dangerously close to dipping into a second recession in the past two years.
Which is why the new report by the Congressional Budget Office is an eye opener. The CBO expects employment to expand slowly, not getting lower than 8 percent unemployment well into what could be the second year of a Mitt Romney or Rick Perry administration.
The unemployment rate is projected to fall from 9.1 per-cent in the second quarter of 2011 to 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of the year and to 8.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012—and then to remain above 8 percent until 2014.
This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2011.