Rep. Darrell Issa: Counterpoint: Fake job numbers vital to stimulus propaganda

Since President Obama took office, the American people have been subjected to an aggressive propaganda campaign designed to convince them that the $787 billion stimulus bill is working. Month after month, as unemployment continues to rise, the administration has sent its spinmeisters out to trumpet an altogether dubious number of jobs "created or saved."

Vice President Biden -- the man appointed by the president to oversee the recovery effort -- has shamelessly continued to claim credit for as many as one million jobs that the administration argues the stimulus has "created or saved."

Meanwhile, unemployment hit the highest point in a quarter century, and 3.8 million more Americans are out of work since the White House promised to "get the economy moving again." There's good reason to doubt thepresident's policies are working.

"Here in Washington, we've all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending," the president noted in his State of the Union address while responding to skepticism about the stimulus. "And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.

"That is why I've asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort -- because nobody messes with Joe."

Apparently, somebody is messing with Joe. Or even worse, Joe seems to be messing with us.

On top of espousing fictitious jobs claims, the White House has now directed the stimulus auditor to report inaccurate information on the Recovery.gov Web site. This continues to occur even as media reports savage the ridiculously inaccurate data.

From $1.2 million in stimulus funds that saved 935 jobs at a Georgia community council with only 508 employees, to a $1,047 lawnmower in Arkansas purchased with stimulus funds that resulted in 50 jobs, to the $26,174 grant for roof repairs in Texas that created 450 jobs, the signature item in the president's economic policy has been fraught with Enron-style accounting tricks and fraudulent reporting.

And all from a president who promised an "unprecedented level of openness and transparency."

The manifest inaccuracies in the data the Obama administration uses to justify its economic policies constitutes the promulgation of inaccurate and misleading information by the federal government. The American people deserve a straightforward accounting of the way the president spends their tax dollars, and they have the right to expect a return on their "investment."

So far, all they are getting is deceitful propaganda and a backbreaking trillion-dollar tax bill from the officials they elected to bring about change.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.