Stimulus Created Jobs overstated by Thousands

[don webb]

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

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.

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.

But the White House said that it had already corrected "virtually all" the mistakes identified by the AP. Oh yeah?

As of early Thursday, on its recovery.org Web site, the government was still citing 30,383 as the actual number of jobs linked so far to stimulus spending, despite the mistakes the White House has now acknowledged and said were being corrected.

Just wait till they get their hands on your health care..:toothache:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091029/D9BKMVMG0.html


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[drtoker]

Most of the jobs created in my state were fixing roads. Great and all, but once the jobs done, all those people are still out of work...

[mountain_rage]

Most of the jobs created in my state were fixing roads. Great and all, but once the jobs done, all those people are still out of work...

The idea behind stimulus spending is to keep money flowing into businesses so they don't shut down. They are only designed to be temporary, and last only until the recession is over. They are generally created in areas where government would require spending in the future regardless of the recession. It helps offset costs of future budgets. Does it always work, of course not, but it should do a least some of what its meant to do, which is to keep money flowing, mortgage payments coming in, and to prevent further collapse of the economy. It dampens the collapse, allowing for a quicker recovery, in theory anyway. Once the recession is over the government should slowly cut back project funding to pay off the dept, this should be possible since a lot of infrastructure got built which would of only been built in the future.

[Excrement_Cranium]

Jobless rates will continue to plummet even after the recession "ends."

Regaining profit margins will have to continue to grow before employers buckle to demand and start creating new positions.

Just before the recession hit full tilt, a lot of major employers were on cutting sprees as things began to slow down.

You have to remember, a sustained profit doesn't work, you can't add another 3 million dollars to a CEO's salary w/ profits being flatline profit, you need more profit to inflate executive salaries, so you cut out the bottom of the labor force, then scratch your head as to where your profits are going.

[Drew Wilson]

Jobless rates will continue to plummet even after the recession "ends."

I think you meant to say jobless rates will continue to go up or employment rates will continue to plummet.

In any event, I agree. The big guys are now out of the hole, but the rest will still be in the slump for quite some time still.

[don webb]

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This explains it well...:fing02:


The Year of Going Galt....!


Starting in June (2008) and all the way through to Election Day, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid repeatedly told the country that they were ready, willing, and would soon be able to starve the country of the conventional sources of energy it needs to keep its economic engines running, regardless of the consequences, bowing before what may be the greatest hoax in human history. Enough high producers to make a difference believed them and abandoned their previous guarded optimism.

Starting in June and all the way through to Election Day, Pelosi, Obama, and Reid — but especially presidential nominee Obama — told the country that they were ready, willing, and would soon be able to punitively tax the 5% of the nation’s most productive so they could redistribute money to everyone else. Enough high producers to make a difference believed them and abandoned their previous guarded optimism.

In September, the decades-in-the-making, Democratic Party-driven housing and mortgage lending mess came to a head at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Washington then allowed itself to be blackmailed into a series of financial sector and other bailouts that appeared to be, and have turned out to be, seemingly endless. Enough high producers to make a difference headed for the lifeboats and abandoned what little optimism remained.

Enough high producers to make a difference abandoned their spring (2008) optimism, not because of then-current economic conditions, which were at worst mediocre. They did so because of their assessments of what economic conditions would be in the not-too-distant future, based on the perilous pronouncements of Pelosi, Obama, and Reid. Many of those who didn’t catch on during the summer did so after observing the reckless September-October actions of the Washington establishment.

As a result, they took steps that businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and investors ordinarily take when a serious recession takes hold — not hiring, not expanding, letting people go and not replacing them, making worn-out equipment last longer instead of buying new, and others — before the serious recession took hold.

They deliberately downsized in response to stated promises by powerful government officials Pelosi, Obama, and Reid to penalize and punish them and the economy as a whole, if and when they gained power.

In other words, enough high producers to make a difference preemptively “went Galt.”

That’s especially true because the disincentives to work hard have increased significantly during this administration’s early months, and there are more possible disincentives on the horizon.

This Forbes report by Janet Novack and Stephanie Fitch (”When Work Doesn’t Pay For The Middle Class”) explains how ugly the situation is in great detail.......:beerchug:

Weapons of Wealth Destruction

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blu...ear-going-galt

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[Mels_Smileys45]

The local economy in my town is doing better, no idea if Obama had any effect on that. So far there have been no industry lay offs or shutdowns for a few month and my work, which is construction related has sky rocketed in a time of year we are usually struggling. Many people are throwing up new buildings even if there are perfectly good buildings available to be had because government incentives give them funds to build more and more. This will turn around and bite us in the ass, everyone, after a bit because many people who need to sell abandoned businesses real estate can't rent or sell them because the stupid government is encouraging people to takeout business LOANS and get in debt to keep the scandalous banks happy. SICK! We are a sick nation full of retards!

[don webb]

The local economy in my town is doing better, no idea if Obama had any effect on that. So far there have been no industry lay offs or shutdowns for a few month and my work, which is construction related has sky rocketed in a time of year we are usually struggling. Many people are throwing up new buildings even if there are perfectly good buildings available to be had because government incentives give them funds to build more and more. This will turn around and bite us in the ass, everyone, after a bit because many people who need to sell abandoned businesses real estate can't rent or sell them because the stupid government is encouraging people to takeout business LOANS and get in debt to keep the scandalous banks happy. SICK! We are a sick nation full of retards!

You’re in agreement with the majority according to this poll?

If members of Congress were up for a job review right now — instead of a year from now — the ranks of the unemployed would swell to an even higher level.

Americans place a lot of the blame for conditions in the country on Congress and, because of that, about two-thirds want to “throw them out.” Even half of Democrats take the view that we need to clean house and start over with new people.

A sizable majority of Americans (64 percent) say the country would be better off by throwing “most” members of Congress out, a jump of 19 percentage points from two years ago.

Hummm, isnt that when democrats were put in charge?...:pat:

Only about one in five Americans (19 percent) feels the average representative deserves to be re-elected, a seven-point drop from October of 2007.

The national telephone poll was conducted for FOX News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 registered voters from October 27 to October 28, 2009. The poll has a 3-point error margin.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,570542,00.html

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