Obama Fails Value-Added Test On Jobs, Economy

The unemployment rate fell to 8.1% last month, not because more people have found jobs but because lots of people have just stopped looking for work.

In fact, labor force participation is at the lowest level since the beginning of the Reagan administration.

The Washington Post puts this into context:

If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent.

The Post article says part of the drop in labor participation comes from baby boomer retirements and the trend predates Obama (thus Bush's even poorer numbers.)

Nonetheless, Barack Obama promised that if the Congress passed his economic stimulus package, unemployment would never go above 8% and would drop down to well below 6% by mid-2012.

Well, here we are, almost at mid-2012 and unemployment is not only still above 8% after hitting as high as 10% early in the administration, but the rate has largely fallen because people have given up looking for work.

Obama wants all teachers in this country evaluated using a value-added measurement that gauges how much "value" a teacher has added to students' test scores.

Applying Obama's cherished value-added measurement to his economic record, you can see that Obama is an "ineffective" president who continues to subtract value from the job market and the country.

Our country is not alone in this mess, of course.

Greece is so depressed that it is veering toward fascism, The Economist recently declared the Eurozone in a depression and the U.K. has just fallen into a double dip recession.

So there are plenty of mitigating factors for why the job market is as poor as it is that have nothing to do with Obama.

Just the way there are plenty of mitigating reasons for why students don't always perform so well on tests that have nothing to do with teachers.

But since Barack Obama gives no quarter for teachers (he's a "No excuses! We know what works!" man), we should give Barack Obama no quarter for his economic stewardship of the country.

Ineffective, Mr. President.

You're fired.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.