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Why the Obama Administration’s Phony ‘Stimulus’ Statistics Matter
Small Businesses, Municipalities, and Editorial Boards Speak Out as Public Loses Confidence in Washington Democrats’ Job-Killing Agenda, Massive Debt

Washington, Nov 4 -

Nine jobs “saved or created” for $900?  That is a feat one shoe store owner in Campbellsville, KY initially reported accomplishing as part of the federal government’s “double and even triple-checked” trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ data. Turns out he made nine pairs of boots for members of the Army Corps of Engineers. 

What about those “couple of hundreds” of jobs ‘saved’ in Columbus City Schools?  The district now says many of those jobs “wouldn’t have been lost in the first place, and others might not have been lost at all.”  Anecdotes like these are quickly becoming legion as the American people get a closer look at how – and why – the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ isn’t working even as it piles up more debt on our kids and grandkids. 

According to an analysis in today’s Wall Street Journal, “the number of jobs the Obama administration credits to federal stimulus money could be overstated by at least 20,000 of the 640,000 claimed.”  These phony statistics have exposed President Obama’s signature domestic spending initiative on at least three fronts: 

• WHERE ARE THE JOBS?  The trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ has failed to create jobs immediately and keep the unemployment rate below eight percent, as the Obama Administration promised it would.  Since the ‘stimulus’ was signed into law, roughly three million private sector jobs have been lost and joblessness has risen to near double digits.  It’s not just the amount of jobs at issue, but the type as well.  Despite President Obama’s pledge that 90% of stimulus job creation would occur in the private sector, this new data shows that the clear majority of jobs ‘created or saved’ were in the public sector.

The Detroit News says in an editorial, “The Obama administration is attempting to spin the tepid job creation sparked by the $787 billion federal stimulus program into an economic success.  But the numbers don’t add up to a good return for taxpayers. … Policy should be based on real numbers, not propaganda.”  That’s why Republicans have proposed better solutions to help small businesses create jobs and get the economy moving again.

• LOSING PUBLIC CONFIDENCE ON EVE OF GOV’T TAKEOVER OF HEALTH CARE.  The Obama Administration’s fumbling of the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ certainly does not bode well for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) 1,990-page government takeover, which creates 111 new federal bureaucracies.  Despite the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus,’ last week’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey found that fewer than three in 10 Americans believe the government has done the right amount to get the economy moving again.  In the most recent ABC News/Washington Post survey, a majority of Americans say President Obama’s economic program isn’t making the economy better.  And now disapproval of the President’s handling of health care has reached its highest levels, according to a new CNN poll.  Republicans have proposed better solutions to make health care more affordable and accessible at a price our nation can afford.

• TRANSPARENCY FAIL.  The Obama Administration has made a mockery of government transparency after several small businesses and municipalities have attributed significant discrepancies in their reporting to a lack of diligence on the part of federal bureaucrats.  One Wyoming official tells the Casper Star-Tribune she received “different and frequently conflicting advice from different federal agencies about how to calculate the number of jobs the stimulus program has created in the state.”  USA TODAY featured the story of a Texas housing official who was told by federal officials his initial claim of six jobs ‘created or saved’ “wasn’t right.”  He instead reported the number of hours the roofers worked – 450 – as the jobs figure.  That represents an increase of a factor of 75.  The day the data was released, the Vice President admitted it was “not 100% accurate.”

The Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent says, “one of the problems with the federal stimulus spending is that it’s hard to figure out just what, if anything, is getting stimulated.”   Republicans are at the forefront of an unprecedented effort to bring much-needed sunlight and transparency to the process by which bills become laws.

“Take these claims with a grain of salt,” the Corvallis (OR) Gazette-Times said in its Sunday editorial, “and with an eye on a relatively straightforward statistic, the unemployment rates for both Oregon and the United States.”  The latest unemployment figures will be released at the end of this week.