He also loves unrealistic economic projects. For example, yesterday he insisted that just months following the deepest recession since the Great Depression, the unemployment rate should be 4% or lower and the economy should be adding 500,000 jobs per month.
TPM:
“I understand the desire for low unemployment and the current 8.1 is unacceptable,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum said. “But 4 percent is not a realistic target.”
Unemployment has not been below 4 percent since April 2000, according to Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It was 3.8 percent that month. That was during the Clinton administration, and it was a very good year: the average unemployment rate was 4 percent.
Bernstein noted that, officially, “full employment” is pegged at a rate of around 5 percent by the Congressional Budget Office currently. That means that if the unemployment rate actually dipped below that mark (say, in the halcyon days of a first Romney term), the Federal Reserve would probably try to raise it to mitigate the chances of inflation.
The economy, therefore, isn’t just unlikely to meet the goals Romney is setting for it — there could actually be a backlash if it did.
You can bet on this: if Romney is elected president, his administration will either tank the economy or we'll see a return to quick-fix bubble economies -- perfect for a cynical dickbag's political ambitions.