Exaggeration Proclamation: Obama’s Economic Plan Overstated, by Thousands, Jobs Claimed Were Created
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 30, 2009
Hear ye, hear ye… exaggeration is the new White House solution…
Pres. Barack Obama claimed when he entered office that the economy he had inherited was the worst it had been since the Great Depression. An exaggeration that so many swallowed (those with a lack of knowledge about American history did, anyway).
Now that he has the economy in even worse shape than it was then, with unemployment even higher than it was in January and still rising, how can Obama backpedal and put a positive spin on that erroneous, previous exaggeration? (If our economy was as horrible as the Great Depression as Obama said, what is our condition now? What tops the Great Depression? The Irish Potato Famine?)
Why, maybe ANOTHER exaggeration would do the trick.
Like announcing that Obama’s stimulus/porkulus package created thousands more jobs than it actually did. Inflate AND exaggerate… let’s see if that works.
I won’t be nasty and unfair to POTUS as he has been at every turn for 9 months against George W. Bush. I won’t suggest that Team Obama’s overstatement of jobs exaggeration was deliberate so as to mislead the American public or that this discovery of the exaggeration was nothing more than a whole heck of a lot more grievous, bumbling mistakes.
I don’t need to say anything. The unfortunate proof of bumbles, blunders, and boo-boos is everywhere.
From Reuters, October 29, 2009:
530,000 people filed new claims for unemployment insurance in the week ending October 24, more than the 521,000 claims economists expected.
From Michelle Malkin, The Stimulus Jobs Inflation Index:
Old metric: Jobs created or saved.
New metric: Jobs inflated or craved.
The White House put out its new fuzzy porkulus math report — and then patted itself on the back for “transparency”…
From Associated Press:
Stimulus jobs overstated by thousands
By Brett J. Blackledge and Matt Apuzzo
Ocotober 29, 2009WASHINGTON — An early progress report on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports.
The government’s first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts.
The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.
For example:
_ A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.
_ A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending.
_ A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees.
There’s no evidence the White House sought to inflate job numbers in the report. But administration officials seized on the 30,000 figure as evidence that the stimulus program was on its way toward fulfilling the president’s promise of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.
The reporting problem could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is expected to show hundreds of thousands of jobs repairing public housing, building schools, repaving highways and keeping teachers on local payrolls.
The White House says it is aware there are problems. In an interview, Ed DeSeve, an Obama adviser helping to oversee the stimulus program, said agencies have been working with businesses that received the money to correct mistakes. Other errors discovered by the public also will be corrected, he said.
Vice President Joe Biden told us early last summer that this administration had lost, squandered, wasted, misspent, and been scammed out of billions of dollars that were intended to stimulate the economy. Weren’t we assured way back then that Team Obama, now aware of the problem, would fix the mistakes and take better control of our tax dollars, making sure that they would do what they were intended to do? Fat chance of that, based on what’s happening with Team Obama this week.
From Gateway Pundit:
In fact the White House website reported today that a total of only 30,383 jobs have been created or saved by the Obama-Pelosi Stimulus.
They seem to have lost around 970,000 jobs some where. Or, maybe they were never there to begin with?
From InvestorCentric Blog:
Unemployment insurance is not up to the scale of the problem and is expiring for many workers. That promises to further reduce spending and aggravate the foreclosure problem.
States are bound by balanced budget requirements and they are cutting spending and jobs. Consequently, the public sector is joining the private sector in contraction.
The destruction of household wealth means many households have near-zero or even negative net worth. That increases pressure to save and blocks access to borrowing that might jump-start a recovery. Moreover, both the household and business sector face extensive bankruptcies that amplify the downward multiplier shock and also limit future economic activity by destroying credit histories and access to credit.
And how will that new Team Obama exaggeration on overstated job numbers look when reported by the press? Something like this…
Associated Press: Gov’t says stimulus saved or created 650,000 jobs
WASHINGTON – About 650,000 jobs have been saved or created under President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, the White House said Friday, saying it is on track to reach the president’s goal of 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.
New job numbers from businesses, contractors, state and local governments, nonprofit groups and universities were scheduled to be released publicly later Friday. White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said the figures will show that, when adding in jobs linked to $288 billion in tax cuts, the stimulus plan has created or saved more than 1 million jobs.
The data will be posted on recovery.gov, the web site of the independent panel overseeing stimulus spending.
Yes, another exaggeration. Hear ye, hear ye… the pattern continues.
Related reading:
Ztower: White House denies AP report of “cooked books” in saved or created jobs report – w/video! and Hey, let’s play OPOLY! It’s like that other board game, but without the MONey. And, oh yeah – you can’t win!
Big Government: Pork Report October 30, 2009: A Caboose To Nowhere Edition
The New Ledger: The White House Attacks Edmunds for Reaching Politically Uncomfortable Conclusion on Cash for Clunkers
Hot Air: WH adds new enemy to list: Edmunds
Sister Toldjah: You know it’s getting bad when CBS turns on you
Chicago Sun-Times: Excuses wearing thin for Obama, media pals
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Outrageous Porkulus… Troop Ammo Cutbacks, More Government Waste, & Pet Projects Exposed by Big Government and “Cash for Convicts” Goof: Obama-Gilligan, Screwing It Up Again with Taxpayers’ Money and Holy Mackerel… Cash for Appliances? Son of ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Program Could Be Another Clunker
The Strata-Sphere: Bogus Jobs “Created Or Saved” Claims By Obama Administration
Gateway Pundit: Obama Website Reports Only 20 Jobs “Created or Saved” in Connecticut, 28 in Vermont & 22 in New Hampshire and White House “Created or Saved” a Million Jobs & Lost 3.3 Million Since Stimulus Passed
Veronique de Rugy, Big Government: What Do You Mean the Federal First-Time Home-Buyer Tax Credit Attracts Fraud? and The Economy is Growing. Right. And I Don’t Have a French Accent.
Vets On The Watch: Inflate, Lie, Mislead, Repeat
Big Government: Pork Report October 29, 2009: National Science Foundation Edition
HillBuzz: It was bound to happen eventually: someone had a GOOD idea for how Chicago can raise money, one not involving selling public assets
Conservatives4Palin: Economy Grows at Lackluster 3.5% in Third Quarter
Temple of Mut: I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results.
Michelle Malkin: The Chicago way: “Why are we having a fire sale on everything in the city?” and Stimulus efficiency success story of the day and And now: Cash for Convicts! and And now: Cash for Kitchen Appliances and Wait, it gets better: Cash for Coiffures! and Roll call vote: Senate rejects Cash-for-Clunkers aid to charities and poor and and Grass-roots revolt in Austin, TX: “Just say no!” to Obamacare; Pennsylvanians boo Sebelius & Specter, “How can you manage health care when you can’t manage Cash For Clunkers?”
Innocent Bystanders: September Unemployment: The Job Loss Accelerates
The Underground Conservative: Cash For Convicts
Three Fish Limit: “Cash for?” — Ideas on how to spend “our” money
The American Pundit: Pork-Loving Senators Diverted Billions in Funds from Troops
The Powers That Be: Hyannispork Update: U.S. Troop Funds Diverted for Ted Kennedy Institute
The Lonely Conservative: $2.6 Billion Cut From Defense to Fund Pork
Nice Deb: Former CBO Director: Obama’s Fiscal Policies “Laughable”
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Stimulus Creating “Full-Time Job Equivalents”
Joseph Lawler, American Spectator: A Giant Problem for the Obama Economic Team
Sister Toldjah: Great news: Cash for clunkers won’t have any real impact on the climate
Moderate in the Middle: Your Tax Dollars At Work: Beauty School dropouts get stimulus grants, but no degrees…
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Gird your loins for this fall – ‘Cash for Refrigerators’! and Your Stimulus tax dollars at work in New Hampshire – $37,000 for Coiffures and “Hair Ho”
The Pachyderms Are Annoyed: Because Cash for Clunkers Worked So Well….
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: Did ‘Cash for Clunkers’ just put Obamacare on the junk heap? Update: House adds $2 billion more to re-start the program
Small Dead Animals: He’s Running America Like They Run Their Party
Cato @ Liberty: Cash for Clunkers: Dumbest Program Ever?
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