Ace of Spades HQ Quarterly Report: We Have Personally Saved or Created 970,000 Jobs

Based on statistical techniques I learned in high school called "guestimating" and "lying."

But Obama claims he "saved" or created (or... funded) 2 million jobs this quarter, so I'm pretty sure I'm good for almost a mil myself. Think about it: While you're goldbricking and slappin' pud on this site, there are other workers required to do your jobs, and even more workers down the line to correct your mistakes.

Anyway: "Stunning."

President Barack Obama is trumpeting a new White House estimate that his top economist calls "stunning": His stimulus plan has already created or saved up to 2 million jobs.

The analysis is part of the administration's quarterly report to Congress on the controversial $787 billion package of spending and tax cuts he signed weeks after taking office.

Obama planned to highlight the report Wednesday during a visit to a Lanham, Md., training center for union electricians that specializes in "green" technology.

Republicans have denounced the stimulus plan as an expensive flop, pointing to a national unemployment rate stuck at 10 percent and December figures showing the economy shed 85,000 more jobs.

But the report from the President's Council of Economic Advisers said the economy is a lot better off than it would have been without the stimulus. Citing its own analysis plus a range of private sector summaries, the council estimated the annual growth rate last year would have been roughly 2 percentage points lower, and there would have been 1.5 million to 2 million fewer jobs.

"That's truly a stunning and important effect", Christina Romer, the council's chairwoman, said in a conference call with reporters. "It has done exactly what we have anticipated it would do."

That is stunning, in so many different ways.

See Obama and Orszag's new "accounting" rules that say that a job should be reported as "saved" even if there was never any danger of it being eliminated in the first place. If a single federal dollar goes to an already-existing job which will exist, with or without federal money, far into the future, Obama racks that up as a "saved" job.

Saved from what? Well, saved from the employer having to pay the full salary I guess.

We're now using the standard "saved or created or partly funded."

posted by Ace at 10:47 AM

| Access Comments