Stimulus jobs overstated by thousands – some jobs credited to stimulus programs counted 4 or more times!

Remember that Colorado company that claimed it created 4,231 jobs with the help stimulus? Well, lets just say thats a bit on the high side. AP reports the actual amount is fewer than 1,000. In Florida, a child care center said it saved 129 jobs with stimulus money. Unless just giving pay raises existing employees counts as “saving jobs” then that number is BS too. Elsewhere in the U.S., some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two, three, four or even more times. Very ACORNish. Associated Press review of data released in the program’s first progress report shows these BS totals and that the government has overstated by thousands the number of jobs it has created or saved with federal contracts under the Obama’s $787 “stimulus”. Yes, as amazing as it may seem, the AP is actually reporting on this.

The discrepancy raises questions about the reliability of a key benchmark the administration uses to gauge the success of the stimulus. The errors could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is released. It 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 seized on an initial report from a government oversight board weeks ago that claimed federal contracts awarded to businesses under the recovery plan already had helped pay for more than 30,000 jobs. The administration said the number was evidence that the stimulus program had exceeded early expectations toward reaching the president’s promise of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.

But the 30,000 figure is overstated by thousands — at the very least by nearly 5,000, or one in six, based on AP’s limited review of some of the contracts — because some federal agencies and recipients of the money provided incorrect job counts. The review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs were credited to stimulus spending when, in fact, none were produced.

The White House says it is aware there are problems. 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.

“If there’s an error that was made, let’s get it fixed,” DeSeve said.

No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post)

October 29, 2009 · Filed Under Porkulus


Comments