The Obama Administration made a big deal yesterday in announcing that the stimulus bill passed in February had supposedly “saved or created” 640,239 jobs:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama White House on Friday said the $787 billion economic stimulus plan approved early this year had saved or created 640,329 jobs so far.
The stimulus package of spending and tax measures, pushed through the U.S. Congress in February by President Barack Obama’s Democrats, has been heavily criticized by Republicans because it has done little to stop U.S. unemployment from rising to its current 9.8 percent.
Vice President Joe Biden, flanked by the governors of California and Maryland at the White House, said the stimulus actually had a larger impact on the work force.
“So far we’ve created over a million jobs,” Biden said. “We’re only about a third of the way through the package.”
Those who receive grants and loans through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for projects such as highway repair are required to make quarterly reports on how the money has been spent.
The information, which covered $160 billion of stimulus obligations through September 30, was compiled into a national snapshot posted at www.recovery.gov. Only $38 billion of those funds have been paid out, said Jared Bernstein, an economic advisor to Biden.
The majority of jobs backed with stimulus dollars were in education — 325,000 — and construction — 80,000, the White House said.
Of course, at the same time they were announcing these numbers, Administration officials were acknowledging to reporters that they really can’t say how many jobs were “created” or “saved”:
White House officials announced Friday that they had counted exactly how many jobs were created or saved by recent stimulus spending: 640,329.
So how many were saved and how many created? They don’t know.
In a briefing with reporters, officials acknowledged they can’t tell the difference between jobs “saved,” and jobs “created” by the $787 billion stimulus package.
They said they also can’t tell the difference between private sector jobs and government jobs.
But wait, it gets worse than that.
Even if you accept the Obama Administration’s figures regarding the stimulus, we’ve still faced the following job losses since the beginning of the years:
598,000 jobs lost in January
651,000 jobs lost in February
663,000 jobs lost in March
563,000 jobs lost in April
345,000 jobs lost in May
443,000 jobs lost in June.
247,000 jobs lost in July.
216,000 jobs lost in August.
216,000 jobs lost in September
Total: 3,942,000 jobs lost in 2009 to date
Even if the Obama numbers were true, they’re barely a drip in an ocean of unemployment.
But, as it turns out, the numbers aren’t accurate at all.
Craig Jennings of OMB Watch was interviewed on CBS News and said the numbers are useless. Based on this exchange with Kaite Couric, CBS reporter Chip Reid seemed to agree with Jennings:
Well, Katie, that report is going to claim that the stimulus has already created or saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, but if the administration`s first effort at counting stimulus jobs is any guide, tomorrow`s numbers could be hard to believe.
Video:
I pointed out back in December before he took office just how phony the “create or saved” rhetoric really was:
Create or preserve.
That’s signficant, I think.
Obama’s not saying that his policies will create 3 million new jobs. Heck, he’s not even really saying that his policies will create a single new job. As long as the Obama Administration can say two years from that they have “created or preserved” three million jobs, they can claim a victory.
Given the numbers that they’re relying upon, that essential means that unemployment can be at exactly the same level it is today, and Obama will be able to claim he’s “preserved” 3 million jobs.
Change you can believe in, or just a massive shell game ?
I think the answer’s obvious.
And here we stand, with three million fewer jobs and an unemployment rate higher than anything we’ve seen since 1983, and the Obama acolytes are still claiming that they’ve “created or saved” jobs.
Talk about the audacity of hype.
