Why does this not surprise me one bit? Probably because number chicanery has been going on ever since Obama switched from claims of jobs created, to jobs "created or saved." The latter gives bureaucrats ammunition to pull numbers out their wazoos. Back in mid-October, the government released stimulus job numbers indicating that Michigan created or saved 397 jobs (Disaster: Hard Stimulus Data Reveals That Michigan "Saved Or Created" Only 397 Jobs For 620 Million Stimulus Dollars, FAR Short Of 19,500 Claim). That was just a few days after Granholm said the number was 19,500 (Enron accounting: Stimulus saved or created 19,500 jobs in Michigan). Recall that Obama promised 3.5 million jobs in 2010, but instead the U.S. has lost 2.7 million. So Obama has 6 million jobs to account for. The Obama numbers were adjusted upwards with claims now running at about 600,000 jobs saved or created. But those numbers were found to be largely fraudulent (Hyperinflation is here! AP: Feds overstated stimulus jobs by thousands). The White House has, however, hunkered down on the false numbers (Blue On Blue: Obama Blasts AP For Reporting That Stimulus Jobs Way Overblown). Recently, the claim was that in Michigan, 6 out of 10 mythical jobs were in education (News: Michigan Saved 397 Jobs From Stimulus, But 13,600 Of Those Were In Education Or Something).Michigan and national numbers weren't the only ones made out of whole cloth. Turns out, fraudulent numbers likely exist in every state, including Ohio. From the Columbus dispatch: Not all jobs 'saved' by stimulus were in danger.
he Obama administration announced Friday that federal stimulus money had created or saved about 7,200 education jobs in Ohio as of Sept. 30.Yet they still count, right? Worse, yet, salary raises are being couted as jobs "created or saved." From the AP via Instapundit: STIMULUS WATCH: Salary raise counted as saved job. Being that this is from the state-run Obama Ap, it should tell any reader just how bad the situation really is.Although a couple of hundred of those jobs were in Columbus City Schools, the district acknowledged yesterday that many of the "saved" jobs definitely wouldn't have been lost in the first place, and others might not have been lost at all.
And from Marathon Pundit, more jobs number chicanery in Illinois:President Barack Obama's economic recovery program saved 935 jobs at the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, an impressive success story for the stimulus plan. Trouble is, only 508 people work there.
...About two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs claimed to be saved under one federal office, the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, actually weren't saved at all, according to a review of the latest data by The Associated Press. Instead, that figure includes more than 9,300 existing employees in hundreds of local agencies who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren't saved.
I'm telling you - ALL of these numbers coming out of the White House are fabrications from someone's imagination. And overly active imagination at that. Ed Morrissey had the best desription of the numbers mischief (via Instapundit): “This could only come from people who never worked in the private sector.” Indeed. If you click over to Ed's article, you will see the administration defend the numbers with absurd justifications such as this one:More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the jobs of 473 teachers.The Trib found similar 2 + 2 = 5 type math elsewhere in Illinois.
Problem is, the district employs only 290 teachers.
"That other number, I don't know where that came from," said Lauri Hakanen, superintendent of North Chicago Community Unit Schools District 187.
“If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job,” HHS spokesman Luis Rosero said.Are these people for real? Theses bureaucrats do stimulus numbers about as well as Biden counts letters:
How Stupid plan..........
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