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Economy
Rep. Darrell Issa: Counterpoint: Fake job numbers vital to stimulus propaganda
2009-11-19
Since President Obama took office, the American people have been subjected to an aggressive propaganda campaign designed to convince them that the $787 billion stimulus bill is working. Month after month, as unemployment continues to rise, the administration has sent its spinmeisters out to trumpet an altogether dubious number of jobs "created or saved."

Vice President Biden -- the man appointed by the president to oversee the recovery effort -- has shamelessly continued to claim credit for as many as one million jobs that the administration argues the stimulus has "created or saved."

Meanwhile, unemployment hit the highest point in a quarter century, and 3.8 million more Americans are out of work since the White House promised to "get the economy moving again." There's good reason to doubt thepresident's policies are working.

"Here in Washington, we've all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending," the president noted in his State of the Union address while responding to skepticism about the stimulus. "And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.

"That is why I've asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort -- because nobody messes with Joe."

Apparently, somebody is messing with Joe. Or even worse, Joe seems to be messing with us.

On top of espousing fictitious jobs claims, the White House has now directed the stimulus auditor to report inaccurate information on the Recovery.gov Web site. This continues to occur even as media reports savage the ridiculously inaccurate data.

From $1.2 million in stimulus funds that saved 935 jobs at a Georgia community council with only 508 employees, to a $1,047 lawnmower in Arkansas purchased with stimulus funds that resulted in 50 jobs, to the $26,174 grant for roof repairs in Texas that created 450 jobs, the signature item in the president's economic policy has been fraught with Enron-style accounting tricks and fraudulent reporting.

And all from a president who promised an "unprecedented level of openness and transparency."

The manifest inaccuracies in the data the Obama administration uses to justify its economic policies constitutes the promulgation of inaccurate and misleading information by the federal government. The American people deserve a straightforward accounting of the way the president spends their tax dollars, and they have the right to expect a return on their "investment."

So far, all they are getting is deceitful propaganda and a backbreaking trillion-dollar tax bill from the officials they elected to bring about change.
Posted by:Fred

#6  The picture's wrong, insted of Donald Duck it needs Obama's piture in the same pose of screaming franticly "Employment is UP"
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2009-11-19 13:36  

#5  Seriously impressive work, lex. Who needs the New York Times (or the LA Times, in this case)!
Posted by: trailing wife   2009-11-19 11:09  

#4  It's a big, huge, honking money trail. How about someone follow it and see where the money really went?

A little case study: there's $6.6B in stim $$$ for education-related projects in California, $4.7B has been "paid out": roughly $3.2B for "stabilization" ie filling the holes in the state's operating budget, and a little over $1B for special ed and programs for disadvantaged schoolkids.

This leaves about $400m paid out, and another $1.9B made available but not paid out. Seeking answers about the missing billions, I asked my congressman's staff, who didn't have any idea where the money was but guessed that the money resided with the state, and referred me to the state legislature.

My state assemblyman had no clue re the missing $1.9B or the mysterious $400m actually paid out. (I was routed to the assemblyman's budget expert, who realized that I knew much more than he about the matter and cheerfully signed off with "Let me know what you find out, huh?")

No one in the state government bureaucracy in Sacramento had any idea about any of the funds, let alone the $2.3B not accounted for, and referred me to local officials. The school district CFOs I called couldn't help.

Ditto for all but one of the half dozen governor's office economic development and executive staff members. No one had any idea regarding how much money was allocated, for what purpose and with what restrictions, and how much was spent and how much remaining-- let alone any idea as to where the missing education-related $1.9B went.

Finally, after three weeks of calls and emails and online sleuthing, I chanced on the only person in this entire process who had a competent explanation: a staffer at Gov. Schwarzenegger's Recovery Act Task Force who said Ahnuld redirected $1.9B in education-related stimulus money to CA correctional facilities.

As to the $400m, I'm pretty sure that was allocated to the "School Impovement Program", which, according to one webpage, buried deep within a .pdf file accessible only via one obscure pop-out page at the national arra.gov site, supposedly allocated $377M to California school renovation projects like ours. Eureka!

But no. The school district that owns the property asserts that such funds can't be used for underutilized "surplus" schools.

This is Katrina. Multi-level governmental ignorance, incompetence, arrogance, secrecy, and utterly zero accountability, with undisclosed shell games, buck-passing, and a massive diversion of $2B from education to non-educational purposes, in this case, to gain cover for a massively failing criminal justice approach.

The cronies and public employee unions receiving the funds-- or merely blocking them from being spent at all-- have not created and aren't creating any jobs.

This is decadence. We are truly becoming a banana republic.
Posted by: lex   2009-11-19 10:23  

#3  "And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.”

When the Administration claimed it has gone through all the data “with a fine tooth comb” it appears they have been very selective in their scrutiny. All of the erroneous data uncovered is in support of the Administrations’ economic policies to “create or save jobs”. It’s curious that none of the bad data has gone the other direction to indicate blatant wasteful spending. Obviously, their primary effort has been to control perceptions regarding the allocation of funds. That way if shit hits the fan it’s they simply blame the little people for recording errors. Anyone see a pattern her?
Posted by: DepotGuy   2009-11-19 10:08  

#2  The problem is that the data in the system are self-reported. In other words, there was no "quality assurance" review. In such a system errors are to be expected. In fact, I wouldn't trust any data in the system (even those that seem right such as in an actual Congression district). Apparently they spend $27 million to redesign the web site, but forgot the most important element: real data.
Posted by: Spot   2009-11-19 08:37  

#1  It's a big, huge, honking money trail. How about someone follow it and see where the money really went?
Posted by: Jumbo Slinerong5015   2009-11-19 05:28  

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