"The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape. The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama's budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress. The release of the update—usually scheduled for mid-July—has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town Aug. 7 on its summer recess."RELATED
The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think
By Mortimer Zuckerman | Wall Street Journal | July 14, 2009
The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad. The average length of unemployment is higher than it's been since government began tracking the data in 1948.
