Summers: Unemployment will "Remain Unacceptably High for a few Years"

The White House's top economist adviser, Larry Summers, made a statement in an interview (read the transcript below) that can only be considered a shocking admission. This administration is acknowledging that they are failing to put the American people back to work again. So what was the stimulus package for? You're telling me that you gave Wall St. almost a $1 trillion in our money and you can't put Americans to work? That's unacceptable:

President Obama’s chief economic adviser has indicated that he expects unemployment to stay at elevated levels for “a few years”. In a candid interview with Nightly Business Report (click on the links for a video or a transcript), National Economic Council Director Larry Summers did not express much hope for a quick drop in unemployment:

After Lehman, the economic discussion was whether recession would turn into depression. Today, the economic discussion is when the recession is going to end, and most experts are looking for significant economic growth in the third and fourth quarters of the year. So I think we’ve come a long way. At the same time, with unemployment well above nine percent, likely to remain unacceptably high for a few years, no one can be satisfied with where we are. We’ve got a great deal of work to do, making sure to do stronger financial regulation. This just can’t happen again. Making sure this expansion is as robust, as firmly grounded as we possibly can.

When asked what further actions the Obama Administration has planned to address the unemployment situation, Mr. Summers added the following comments:

The administration’s economic overall program, the Recovery Act, has operated and functioned more rapidly, I think, than any economic expansion program in memory, but as yet, well under half of the funds under it are dispersed. They’re going to be dispersed going forward–and dispersed at a growing rate.

Essentially, this interview did not deviate greatly from the talking points made by numerous other Obama Administration officials, except for the fact that Mr. Summers seemed more candid regarding an extended period of persistently high unemployment.