The Obama administration claims that its $787 billion economic stimulus program has "created or saved" 640,329 jobs across the country, with more to come. That breathtaking figure includes 24,448 jobs in Illinois. Really? Those employment claims are looking like a snow job.
As the Tribune's Bob Secter and Erika Slife recently reported, the figures for Illinois don't come close to adding up.
State and federal officials claimed that the stimulus money had saved 473 education jobs in North Chicago. But the school district there employs only 290 people. Officials claimed 166 jobs were saved in Wilmette schools. The real number: 0. The 382 jobs supposedly saved in Dolton-Riverdale? That's 142 more people than the school district employs. And on and on. The Chicago Way - they counted the dead people that work in these schools.
Across the country, journalists and government watchdogs are finding the same yawning gap between stimulus claim and stimulus reality.
Alabama housing authority officials said that a $540,071 grant would create 7,280 jobs. They were off by only 7,266 jobs, the Birmingham News reported.
ABC News reported that Moore's Shoes & Services in Campbellsville, Ky., claimed nine jobs were created from an $890 grant for nine pairs of work boots for the Army Corps of Engineers. Yes, $890. No zeros are missing.
The California State University system supposedly saved 26,156 jobs -- but that's more than half the university's statewide work force.
The Wall Street Journal found hundreds of reports that, taken together, artificially inflated the stimulus claims by at least 20,000 jobs. College work-study money? Jobs saved! Money spent to give some folks modest raises? Jobs saved!
The government's Web site, Recovery.gov, reported that 30 jobs were saved or created in Arizona's 15th Congressional District. Except Arizona has only eight congressional districts. Memo to Washington: There is no 99th Congressional District in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In all, officials claimed jobs were created in more than 400 phantom congressional districts, according to ABC News.
So is this fraud or wishful thinking or rampant sloppiness?
Here's the most benign explanation: Tens of thousands of public and private entities have received money. There is a long, tedious and apparently confusing government form to fill out. Obama folks have been keen on showing that the billions they've shoveled out have gone to good purpose.
Result: Grateful locals happily reported magnificent results and a grateful administration didn't ask any questions. Probably because hard questions -- the kind being asked by reporters -- show that a lot of stimulus money has not been targeted at economic stimulation. It has been old-fashioned government largesse.
Trying to measure if a job has been "saved" by a federal windfall is like trying to find the pea in a shell game. Chances are you're going to be fooled. If the money covered a worker's paycheck for a few weeks, is that a job saved? No. But let's count it anyway!
Administration officials say they're scrambling to fix the problems. But their credibility on the impact of stimulus spending at this point has been badly wounded.
Actually, you can precisely measure it: 0.