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:”
More than 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 not scheduled to be released publicly until Friday afternoon. But White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein says officials have been told the figures. When adding in jobs linked to $288 billion in tax cuts, Bernstein says 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.
“It’s a great example of the unprecedented transparency, where the American taxpayer can point and click and see their taxes creating jobs,” Bernstein said.
The Associated Press provided real transparency yesterday with its report on stimulus jobs inflation — and the White House didn’t like it one bit:
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.
Senate Republicans offer 10 stimulus job creation stories to remember.
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Categories: fiscal stimulus
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A Job Czar could track all this for us.
Kinda reminds me of how many people were actually at the “Million Man March”.
Of course, the opposite was true of how many people they counted at the Sept 12 March.
I believe Obama has saved millions of jobs! Want proof? I saved 39,783 just today. Don’t believe me? Prove me wrong.
Just read on Yahoo that the stimulus pork saved a million jobs, so the White House spin machine is on over drive today.
Yesterday, on news, I heard it was less than 20% of actual jobs originially projected, a major miscount.
I say, round it out to a trillion jobs (lost), costing a trillion bucks. That seems to be the lucky Obama number. No one believes this White House anyway, so just continue to make it up, as that is in the Chicago play book.
Governments do NOT create jobs or wealth. The destroy jobs and wealth. For the government to create a job, it has to either use tax money or inflate the paper money to pay for it.
If taxes are used, then real (i.e., private sector) jobs are lost because the private sector has to pay the taxes. That money is no longer available for real job creation.
If the paper money is inflated to create the job, then prices go up due to the inflation and everyone’s pay is worth less. Because the paper dollar is now devalued, the private sector has to give inflation adusted pay raises because costs have gone up. Which means, there’s less money to hire more people.
Either way, when a gov’t “creates” a job, it destroys jobs in the private sector.
When will that bit of information be on the evening news? Never. Can’t deviate from the B.O.s socialist “feel good” script.
Arrogance
And we can’t actually call the president a liar- he is having his minions lie for him. Slippery that one.
Michelle Malkin just created 1,556,334 jobs and I created 989,324 on the way to work.
I wonder how many people now regret their vote over this articulate empty suit last November?
The “moderates” or those who were fooled into thinking Obama was the best choice, not the cult voters who liked the crisp crease in his trousers, or had tingles up their legs.
Why waste a good phrase?
created or saved
Seems it’s all the rage for Democratic governors too.
We’ve got our own little feifdom right next door to Obama.
Obama’s crass use of Afghanistan war dead.
Disgusting.
In most cases, those who apply for stimulus money are required to list on the application how many jobs will be created or saved if they are awarded the funds. Those are the numbers that the administration is basing their claims upon. Now, do you think the applicants might be inclined to “fudge” a bit if they think they can get the cash for their “projects”? The administration is presenting bogus statistics. What is the mechanism for following up on these awards to make sure that the applicants claims are on the up and up?
How much was spent to create each new job?
$787 billion for 25,000 jobs? My calculator laughed so hard, it asked me to put it down so it could pee it’s battery.
“A statistic is like a woman of the night; once you get it down you can do most anything you want with it.” Mark Twain.
Way, way, way OT
In 2006, Sudanese military officers detained US Air Force personnel, slapped them around, and threatened to rape then sell into slavery two US woman airmen.
I would have 100% supported Bush retaliating by bombing the Sudanese military command to the Stone Age, and am disaapointed in Bush that he didn’t.
For Immediate Distribution
The White House, Washington, DC.
Today President Obama announced that his latest economic plan, still unwritten and not yet submitted to Congress, has already saved or created over 250 million jobs for Americans!
President Obama has assured Congressional leaders that the cost of his new plan is estimated at “probably less than $15 trillion, give or take a few dates to New York or Copenhagen” and will resolve most if not all of the problems with the evil capitalist system he inherited by making all Americans Federal Employees or as the bill will refer to them as “State Employees Reemployed Federally” or “SERFs” for short.
-30-
The most disgusting thing I could ever imagine a President doing. To characterize my emotions as “FURIOUS” is an understatement.
I would be willing to bet that once the newest report becomes public and people start going through it there will be many more errors found.
Flyoverman said:
Several of the comments were right on. I cannot write what I tink but their comments on that site were dead on. Our Dear Leader is a 4th stringer REMF
Jobs “saved” should be re-named Jobs “not yet destroyed”.
When the number of jobs lost every month is the equivalent of the entire population of Jacksonville, Florida, a piddly “savings” equal to Paducah, Kentucky is nothing even if it was real.
I am not sure Obama would be eligible to enlist and therefore isn’t a REMF. But if he were able to enlist he would get fast-tracked for citizenship after only a few years of service…
The admin is really streaching the truth to try and validate their actions.
“You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time”
Just think how many they could have saved if they switched to GEICO?
The sad thing is they are counting temporary jobs. So if one person is put to work on a temp job for two months and later gets another job for a month…well, two jobs are credited, even if that person is now home eating Cheetos watching Oprah.
It really is transparent…
They’re cooking the numbers in such bazarre and stupid ways that even the syncophant MSM are rolling their eyes.
They’re cooking the numbers in such bizarre and sophomoric ways that even the sycophantic MSM are rolling their eyes.
Even with some of the scales falling from their eyes, the Press are wretchedly incompetent.
I like sophomoric better.
More like Hubris. They’re beyond arrogance.
But what the heck? The Potemkin Candidate (Don’t look past his skin color!) rules as the Potemkin President — Don’t look behind those jobs figures! At least he’s consistent about something.
Throw on top a phony “peace prize” while we’re at it.
When it comes to the economy, this administration has been making it all up as they go along. They just sh*t these “jobs-created-or-saved” numbers, they have no idea of the truth on the ground — and they expect the donkey media to just parrot what they’re told to the “Fat, Dumb and Happy” American People.
The sense of betrayal that Hope-a-Dope and his cabal must be feeling toward the AP must be palpable.
Rush has a lot of made up numbers on his show today. No one is believing this sham of an administration.
You know what this is beginning to resemble? The military’s reliance on “Body Counts” as a yardstick to measure “progress” in the Vietnam War. In the absence of a coherent strategy from the political leadership, it was a way of showing that they were accomplishing something.
Then, when became clear that those same political leaders didn’t much care about the accuracy of those counts as long as they “looked good” came the growing temptation and practice of fudging those numbers, until ultimately they proved worthless as an indication of what was really happening in the field.
Hope-a-Dope is doing the equivalent of sending out economic “radio patrols” — i.e., having his economic advisers pretend to be out there gathering facts in the field, when they’re really just sitting in the bunker and sending up a steady stream of fake situation reports.
As long as everyone involved in the scheme does the wink-and-nudge and presents the phony information as “real,” they think that they can get away with it.
But it looks like the AP just ratted them out. Oops.
Why, isn’t life grand? The president says that his programs for recovery are all on track, purring like fine swiss watches, saving jobs left and right. Why, I think that I will wake up tomorrow and every single problem will be solved by Obama the genius. Why, Gore Vidal calls him a genius, so intelligent that no normal human being can comprehend his ideas. Meanwhile folks, while we are all waiting for nirvana, why not take advantage of this great vacation property that I am selling located in the middle of the Sahara desert.
And they are saving the dollar by printing trillions of them…
The Nazis would be envious of this propaganda.
Next week’s White House press release:
“The courageous leader, Barack Obama has graced us with the new facts about The Stimulus:
1. As of this Friday, eleventy brazillion jobs were created.
2. The average salary of each job is $2.8 million per annum.
3. There was no cost to the taxpayer at all.
4. Fox News Channel sucks and is populated by misogynists and child-molesters (especially O’Reilly and Hannity). Don’t even get us started on Chris Wallace…
Hope and change is the final solution.”
Clemens also said,
Statistics: 650,000 new/saved jobs; 3.5% 3rd quarter growth;
Facts: 9.8% Unemployment and growing; Average 500,000 jobs lost per month; 3.5% 3rd quarter GDP growth – but half of that (1.7%) was cash for clunkers costing the taxpayer %24K/Car, and will be offset by lost new car sales for the rest of the year.
Even allowing the bogus job figures we’re still losing 420K jobs/mo Barry. But hey, thanks for the good news.
Hilarious. The 1.7% represents ALL cars sold. Do you think not a single person would have bought a car without CfC? Actually 82% said they still would still have. So CfC accounts for .3% of the total growth.
apt description metric: Jobs imagined or destroyed.
Here’s some numbers for the Obamamunists:
Our small engineering consulting firm is doing about 50% of the business it did last year. In the past 3 months it has fallen off even more dramatically so that we have about 30% of the usual workload. 100% of the contractors, architects and engineers we work with are in the same situation or worse. Of the numerous people and firms we deal with I know of exactly 1 job that was related to the stimulus. Now for the really bad news: What we do in the design and permitting stage is 6 months to a year ahead of construction and for every job I work on there are dozens of trades men involved, not to mention suppliers of materials. Things are tough in the field now but when the slowdown we are experiencing in the office now hits in a few months 3 out of 4 construction workers will be unemployed.
Not based on massive data or scientific study. Just reality.
Lets make him an Honorary 4th string REMF. After all he is the Dithering/Waffler in Chief and most definitely way in the back, as it were. Hell, he won the NOBEL Peace prize afterall.
What’s a little fuzzy math amongst friends? And speaking of friends:
Barack: “Where’s my vig!?”
You seriously believe 82% of the huge sales jump would have bought a new car in a recessed economy without the huge dole check? That is hilarious.
BTW, after some review I must concede the possibility that you may be slightly less wrong re the tort reform data than I originally allowed. I still believe it is a necessary part of the cost reduction picture. More so than you think.
This is what people self reported and the very basis of your claim that each car cost us $24,000. You can’t claim one fact without conceding the other.
Most helped teachers, Ironic people who are already financed by 100% TAXES
Got the most help. Next police,followed , fireman.
chap – Just curious…are you charging some poor shmuck $450/hr while trying to pi$$ people off on MM.com?
I will let you assume what you will, both on rate and on my billing practices.
Let’s see…what ‘jobs’ got ’saved’?
Government
Education
Union
and That’s All Folks!
President Obama said this yesterday after getting positive news on third quarter growth:
Is this going to become Obama’s “Mission Accomplished” statement?
Beck’s on with Bolton and Monckton.
Question:
Is Pork quantified by the pound, the Dollar, or the Utopian weight in BullSh1t per word?
Cuz I been buyin’ Kobe beef by the butt-load!
As long as we’re dealing with ‘Utopian Dreams’ if you follow ‘Calvin & Hobbs’ an escape to Mars is underway.
It has become obvious that at the level of Government Spending achieved so far by these novice diplomats and pseudo economists the standard definition of GNP needs to be adjusted.
If they can define a $9b sludge dump into nothingness as ‘Economic Growth’ we can look forward to ecstatic enormous growth for the rest of eternity.
Well, you’ve mentioned previously being able to bill in 6 and 15 minute increments.
I’d hazard a guess closer to a 200-250 mark, but that’s just a SWAG based on the fact that I believe we’re about the same age.
swede, not for nothing, but what a client gets billed for and what Chap sees at the end of it all in compensation is probably a noticeable difference. In defense of lawyers, they tend to be meticulous in tracking their minutes and productivity, IMHO.
Back on topic: Job creation, whether inflated or otherwise misrepresented, is the wrong metric to look at in my mind. Job retention, in business not government, is much more meaningful.
Of course. It’s the few areas that government has any real, direct influence. To create jobs in the private sector, they’d have to create incentives.
Instead, they’d rather monitor how much executives make, attack the employer-provided health insurance model (which was a defensive measure to FDR’s wage controls), and create policies that will punish certain industries for AGW.
After all, we wouldn’t want “Big Business” to succeed despite the fact that they’re the ones employing Americans.
Liberals are stupid enough to put “Big Business” out to pasture, then have the audacity to wonder where the tax receipts went.
Are you sure about that, Jangar? That would mean Obama lied:
Also, back in January, Obama promised this:
So Obama acknowledges that you must create jobs in the private sector to have “long-term growth”. But according to a recent report, Jangar is right. Obama has not kept his promises:
It’s clear that Obama lies at the drop of a hat and makes promises he has no intention of keeping. But what is not clear is why the media chooses not to remember Obama’s broken promises and does nothing to hold him accountable.
Government is parasitical. The best you can hope for is a symbiotic relationship, but invariably, the parasite (governement) shortsightedly tries to kill the host (taxpayer).
My apologies to any roundworms or flatworms that I compared to Congresscritters.
Watch for Obama/Rahm/Axelrod to appear and claim that the Associated Press is not a news organization in 3 – 2 – 1 …
Oh, wait. In the case of the AP, they’d be right!
Gosh, where’s LGM when you need him to apply his “math skills” to this specific situation.
Oh, right… we have his new stand-in Chaps giving credence to the numbers now because whew! the stimulus just SAVED us. Got it, people?
We’re now out of the recession, Bam Bam gets to blame the loss of jobs on Bush and he gets to pretend that we’re in a full-blown job recovery!!!
Wow, I feel better about my chances of getting a job, what with Colorado Springs, CO crediting the military with helping them get out of precarious economic time (we’re their biggest consumers) yet at the same time they’re guilt tripping taxpayers about cutting services and closing museums if taxes aren’t somehow raised. This same community who thinks nothing of discriminating against military spouses when they get the chance.
Yay… I feel better. Don’t you guys? We’re saved. SAVED!!!
A local talk show personality, on his program (on Thursday, I believe) read an e-mail from a company that received a contract funded by stimulus dollars. This company wouldn’t have created or eliminated jobs if they had not received that contract.
The person who sent this information (no jobs created, no jobs lost/or saved) in to the proper government figure was sent and e-mail in reply, basically saying that they MUST have saved or created jobs and they should basically FALSIFY the numbers.
So as to avoid retribution, the host didn’t mention any names or revealing details. Just that they were basically ordered by the government to lie.
Most ethical, transparent government ever, indeed!
I know the only goal the government has, at this time, is control and power, by either taking over the industries, promoting their friends in the unions, or punishing those who don’t fall into step. They could care less about the economy and jobs. It’s pretty obvious how to stimulate the economy, but that would against the politicians’ quest for domination. They know that you need to cut corporate taxes and regulations, and let the free market run. Instead they promote the “tried and true” method of failure: socialism. Create an enemy, declare a crisis, and look like the “good guy” in “fixing” it.
Many people would rather say that they were buying a car anyway instead of saying it was because of the free money.
You miss my point. swede claims that each car cost $24,000. This was on the basis of a report that claimed only 18% of people bought a new car because of the CfC program. He cannot cite the $24,000 figure and dismiss the 18/82% figure. They are one and the same.
Sorry, what numbers did I give credence to?
It is insane how Obama and the crony minions in his administration have duped the media to cover numbers that include “jobs saved” in their propaganda reports. The audacity to say that jobs were “saved and created” without ANY sort of rebuttal from the “news” outlets, as though it was something that all administrations have done in perpetuity shows beyond all doubt that they are lap-dogs for this fraudulent president.
Obama could someday claim that EVERY job that still exists in America were “saved” by his idiotic policies, and they’d obediently report it as though there were no cause or reason to dispute it. But, justice will be done. I wonder how many media drones will be joining the ranks of the unemployed, simply because there will be no way for the idiot in the White House to throw enough play-money at the problem to save them.
If America survives this, we MIGHT be able to look back at this era as a bad joke, and even laugh at how ridiculous people were when the Chicago mob tried to run the greatest country on Earth. We could only be so lucky…
Just more proof that there’s no transparency at all – just more lies.
If Bernstein can prove to my satisfaction that any taxes created a single public sector job, I’ll vote Democrat in the next election.
Not going to happen, of course. Only a liberal would be so bereft of wisdom as to think taxation could create a decent-paying job.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com