The AP reports:
The White House is defending the overly optimistic economic models it used to justify the historic stimulus plan. Four months after the stimulus was passed, unemployment is far higher than expected and continuing to rise. It is even higher than the White House predicted it would have been without the stimulus.
So what does the White House do? Come out and make more phony promises about jobs “saved or created.” One other news story that might explain why all that money has had so little impact on the U.S. economy — the White House report on stimulus spending has been found to contain another bogus claim:
Stimulus plan No. 7 reads as follows: “#7: The New York States Veteran’s Home at St. Alban’s in Jamaica, NY is using $109.5 million in Recovery Act spending to install more efficient motors, variable speed drive units, lighting, ballasts, lighting sensors, daylight sensors, and to replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. ” $109 million sounded to us like quite a bit of cash for those repairs at one VA, so ABC checked into the validity of the claim. In actuality, St. Albans is slated to receive $3 million, according to Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-NY, who told ABC News, “That is not accurate. The $109 million dollars mentioned in the White House report was given to the state for all VA facilities.”
The only way $3 million doesn’t still sound like “quite a bit of cash for” light bulbs is if you started at $109.5 million.
