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November 18, 2009

Government's figures don't add up

Last week, President Barack Obama claimed that his policies have created or saved more than a million jobs. That’s a far cry from the 3.5 million jobs he promised to create when pushing for his $787 billion stimulus act 10 months ago.

But it’s also higher than the 640,329 jobs listed as created or saved by the government’s official Web site, www.recovery.gov. Ten months ago, Obama promised that 90 percent of the jobs created by the stimulus would be in the private sector. So far, its own numbers indicate that over half have been in government.

But there’s no reason to believe the government’s claims to have saved a million jobs or 640,329 jobs. Most efforts to check the administration’s numbers have found they are inflated, sometimes greatly.

For instance, the administration claims to have created or saved 24,681 jobs in Georgia. (The state has lost about 310,000 jobs since 2007). But when The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tried to check the administration’s claims, it found quite a few problems. Hundreds of workers who received raises from stimulus funds were among those whose jobs were counted as saved or created. There were numerous cases of jobs being counted on projects that haven’t started and for which people have yet to be hired.

The Associated Press found that a Head Start organization in Moultrie reported stimulus spending had saved 935 of its jobs, even though just 508 people work there. The agency blamed the error on a missing decimal point. It meant to report 9.35 jobs saved.

Newspapers and television stations across the country have found similar errors in their states.

And ABC News found that not only is the administration counting jobs that don’t exist, it’s counting them in places that don’t exist. The government says it created or saved 30 jobs in Arizona’s 15th congressional district. Arizona has eight congressional districts. The government claims to have created or saved 25 jobs in Connecticut’s 42nd district. The state has five congressional districts.

At best, the government hasn’t shown much competence in counting these jobs. At worst, it’s guilty of at least a little fraud. Either way, this debacle doesn’t inspire much confidence in the administration.

The Daily Citizen

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