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Jobs map update: Obama spends $800 billion, taxpayers get peanuts. Literally.
By: David Freddoso
Online Opinion Editor
11/19/09 8:55 AM EST
We've added thousands more jobs in several dozen cities to our not really "created or saved" stimulus jobs map. The total number of jobs we have found to be "not really created or saved" now approaches 80,000. Several new states and the Territory of Guam have new entries. We will continue updating the map in the coming weeks.
The newest entry shows that even though President Obama spent $787 billion on the stimulus package, taxpayers aren't even getting peanuts. A peanut grower reported creating ten jobs on a stimulus contract for "Roasted Nuts and Peanut Butter Manufacturing" for the Farm Service Agency. But the project has not begun, nor have any stimulus funds been received.
Most of the new pins on our interactive map represent such un-started, un-funded contracts, according to data taken from Recovery.gov. Because the Obama administration has been using its inflated claim of 640,000 jobs "created or saved" to make projections for future stimulus job creation, these un-started, un-funded projects really should not be part of the total. Moreover, the administration itself has asked contractors not to make "projections" but to report jobs as they are "created or saved," according to news reports.
A new GAO report reveals some obvious reporting flaws, the most obvious being that nearly 60,000 jobs were reported even though their projects had yet to receive funds. Assuming that some contractors might be paid after they are done with their work, we took a cautious approach by first looking at projects that remain both un-started and un-funded, yet claim to have "saved or created" stimulus jobs.
Unlike the story about projects in fake Congressional districts -- which is obviously a minor reporting problem -- the reports that these projects are not started appear to be a serious issue. They are bolstered by comments that the contractors themselves put on their own reports. A typical example is a Virginia contractor who reported creating a job, but also reported that work hadn't started on his contract. He added in an optional field: "NOTHING SO FAR" in all caps. The same kind of thing appeared repeatedly throughout the report that The Examiner downloaded from Recovery.gov.
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