Shocker: Obama Administration Inflates Stimulus Jobs Created/Saved Numbers By Thousands Of Jobs
But don’t worry. They’ll correct it on future reports. They promise.
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.
Of course, even if this money weren’t being wasted and misappropriated the “stimulus” spending would hardly be generating economic stimulus. At least, not in the long run.
Remember that this spending is borrowed money that will eventually have to be paid off. Calling the spending of this money stimulus is like taking cash advances off your credit card and calling it income. Sure, you’ve got the money in your account now and you can spend it, but eventually it will have to be paid back.
With interest.
The same goes for the “stimulus” money. We borrowed it from international creditors like China against our future tax payments, and the money will have to be paid back. And the burden of paying that off will far outweigh any economic stimulus we’re seeing now.
