Patterico's Pontifications

11/3/2009

Obama’s Phony “Created or Saved” Numbers

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:54 am



When Obama says the stimulus “created or saved” x number of jobs, you already know that’s a bogus claim. It’s just common sense. But now, Bill Bush at the Columbus Dispatch has the hard proof. Marvel as he explains “the fuzzy math involved in pinpointing a saved-jobs number”:

The Obama administration announced Friday that federal stimulus money had created or saved about 7,200 education jobs in Ohio as of Sept. 30.

Although a couple of hundred of those jobs were in Columbus City Schools, the district acknowledged yesterday that many of the “saved” jobs definitely wouldn’t have been lost in the first place, and others might not have been lost at all.

How did this happen? Apparently, the Obama administration (though its proxy, the Ohio Department of Education) gave the district a choice when it came to reporting on jobs that were neither created nor saved. School district officials could say the jobs had been “created.” Or, they could that they were “saved”:

Of the 212.5 full-time equivalent jobs the district said were funded with part of the $64 million in stimulus it expects to receive, about 65 percent were “saved,” including 36 principals and assistant principals.

So was the district on the verge of laying off 36 school administrators?

“No,” Dannemiller said, explaining that the reporting choices were “created” and “saved.”

“They weren’t ‘created,’ obviously, so our only other choice was ‘saved.’ “

So. Is Obama a liar? Or a huge liar?

Thanks to Bradley J. Fikes.

P.S. Will some enterprising journalist investigate whether this happened in other states?

58 Responses to “Obama’s Phony “Created or Saved” Numbers”

  1. Why doesn’t Obama just claim that he has saved everyone’s job. The media won’t challenge that either.

    Alta Bob (e8af2b)

  2. ROTFLMAO! Created or Saved. My 13 year old can call BS on this BS. Dad, how do you know if a job is really “saved?” God I hope the American People wake up before it is too late.

    J. Raymond Wright (d83ab3)

  3. ” So. Is Obama a liar? Or a huge liar? ” As if there were any doubt, yes.

    Edward Lunny (331570)

  4. The Democrats spent years trying to prove that Republicans lie about stuff like Iraq. Now, they are proving that they lie about stuff. Who’s left ? This will not end well for career politicians.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  5. Can’t he be both?

    Dmac (a964d5)

  6. why not change the headline to “Obama’s Phony” and leave it as a sticky banner at the top of the page from now on?

    /picking the low hanging fruit

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  7. Come 2012 if there are only a thousand employed persons in the US then Obama will have saved or created those thousand jobs.

    Have Blue (854a6e)

  8. Once upon a time a “sinister influence” stalked the halls of the White House erasing inconvenient tape recordings. Now it saves jobs and quite possibly a little bacon too.

    ropelight (d46b44)

  9. Best post I saw on this was on the order of:

    ok, I got up this morning, used the toilet…jobs saved: 2, 1 for the sewage company and 1 for the toilet paper maker.

    Went into the kitchen and made some eggs. jobs saved: about 3. Saved the farmer’s job who took care of the chickens, saved the grocer’s job because he sold me the eggs. Saved the power company at least one job with the electricity I used.

    YADA, YADA, YADA

    Now I am posting and saving another job!! WOW!!!

    This is about how our government decides jobs created/saved pretty much.

    One guy posted that the USPS hired 50 people to work 1 hour a week and that the USPS reported that (correctly) 50 jobs had been created!!

    Can’t wait until they take over our healthcare!

    Charlotte (dad663)

  10. […] Created or Saved 10 Jobs This Morning Jump to Comments Really. By using the precise methodology used by the Obama Administration to determine the impact of the Stimul…, I can demonstrate that I created or saved 10 jobs this […]

    I Created or Saved 10 Jobs This Morning « Teh Resistance Blog (13dd56)

  11. Ace had a pretty good smackdown on this ‘saved or created’ BS.

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/294203.php

    RickZ (c06fbc)

  12. I don’t understand the point of this article (nor Ace’s or any other like it). What difference does it make when the majority of the population either doesn’t read/hear about it, or turns a blind ear/eye at the data?

    As far as most are concerned, the stimulus package has created or saved xxx number of jobs. No one in the media will call the Administration on it. No one in Congress will bring it up publically. It’s like honking your horn at the speeding car that side-swiped you.

    Shake your fist and pump up the volume, “he who puts the ‘O’ in ZERO” will add this to his tally sheet on how he has fundementally transformed America.

    Corwin (ea9428)

  13. I saved ONE job last week, I went to work. And I think I accomplished more work than Obama did. How do I know? Well, I wasn’t fired so I must have saved my job.

    GM Roper (6afe02)

  14. God creates, Jesus saves.

    You’re talking about Obama, right?

    quasimodo (4af144)

  15. “…whether this happened in other states.”

    Well, Duh?”

    AD - RtR/OS! (e6a9d0)

  16. WHERE THE “CREATED/SAVED” NUMBERS ORIGINATE:

    My employer (on my lunchbreak using my person laptop and ISP, thank you) sells computer equipment to the Fed’l Gov’t. The Fed’l Gov’t are now soliciting proposals for purchases to be funded using Stimulus disbursements. One of the conditions for an award under these proposals is that the prospective supplier must document the number of jobs created/saved should the supplier receive the award.

    There is no methodology provided or template supplied for calculating the number of said jobs, that is left to the prospective supplier’s proposal team to determine. Assuming there is a central bureaucracy tracking stimulus disbursements, the “created/saved” numbers published by the White House could include an aggregation of the supplier-provided jobs’ estimates culled from bid responses. 1,000 here, 1,000 there, duplicating jobs’ estimates from competing bids, pretty soon we’re talking material numbers.

    Takeaway (mine, at least) is that prospective suppliers will be tempted to inflate that jobs’ number and the soliciting Agency won’t be inclined to question it…unless there is a post-award protest.

    –furious

    furious (71af32)

  17. Thank you for the source of the created/saved jobs…it is just too funny….I saw it on Ace of Spades quoted by someone else.

    And yes, I agree with you, GM Roper….I didn’t get fired last week so I did manage to save one job!!

    Loving this….get the popcorn!!!

    Charlotte (dad663)

  18. “God creates, Jesus saves.”
    You’re talking about Obama, right?

    No. Creating and saving are very different things, but Obama has done neither.

    Official Internet Data Office (967528)

  19. Obama has also created and/or saved a few hundred thousand conservatives. Give or take a few, of course.

    Vivian Louise (eeeb3a)

  20. This is an isolated incident of dishonesty, and not at all indicative of the overwhelming success of the stimulus at creating or saving jobs.

    JD (05d719)

  21. Blasphemer! The power of The O!ne is to both create AND save!

    And unify.

    Yes! His power is to do three things: create, save, and unify!

    And inspire.

    AMONG THE AWESOME POWERS of The O!ne…

    PCachu (e072b7)

  22. His power is to do three things: create, save, and unify!

    Not Obama. You must be thinking of The Mighty Favag.

    Official Internet Data Office (967528)

  23. […] many of them wouldn’t have been cut at all, with or without the stimulus block grants (via Patterico): The Obama administration announced Friday that federal stimulus money had created or saved about […]

    Hot Air » Blog Archive » Ohio jobs “saved or created” weren’t in danger at all (e2f069)

  24. The “saved” metric is totally fake, of course, since there is no real way to measure it. But given the continued slump in employment, even this meaningless statistic may not suffice. Here’s my prediction. Before the 2010 election, TeamObama will introduce (and lapdogs of the Approved Media will accept) a new and improved metric:

    [insert BS number] jobs created, saved or envisioned!

    The possibilities are infinite.

    jsk (a19d54)

  25. I loved Ace’s reference to Obama as Bonny Prince Barack–I’ll have to remember that one for the future–when he saves some more jobs that didn’t need to be saved.

    Rochf (ae9c58)

  26. As we learned with the Nobel, having the right intention is quite enough.

    JD (b3f947)

  27. Remember the old McDonald’s signs on which the number of million burgers served incremented? (Ok, I’m an old fart!) I predict a sign will be erected near the WH gates, “XXXX Million Jobs saved or created by Obama”.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  28. Just as ACORN gives us “Registered Voters” who exceed the adult population of the area, I’m quite confident that the above referenced sign will total in excess of the population of the United States, since Teh One, is saving jobs around the world with his far-sighted and compassionate policies.

    AD - RtR/OS! (e6a9d0)

  29. If Bush or Palin did something like this, it would prove something about their honesty and intelligence. Since Obama has done it, it really doesn’t prove anything.

    Dustin (bb61e3)

  30. […] Patterico’s has more plus a lively discussion. […]

    Gazzer’s Gabfest » “Created or saved” explained, at last. (b98ad6)

  31. STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS!

    Give the public some credit (and I’m referring specifically to the mushy middle whose votes put Obama over the top). The polls indicate they’re having some serious buyer’s remorse, if not outright regret at having voted for Obama, at least a gnawing sense that Obama isn’t all that they thought – and hoped – he would be.

    And when the Obama Administration comes along and throws out statistics that just don’t match what these people are seeing every day, it makes them feel like Obama is playing them for fools. He not only isn’t fixing things as quickly as they want, he’s lying to them.

    So the loyal opposition ought not be complaining but rather encouraging Obama to keep using these make believe metrics… and to keep pushing programs the American people don’t want. As the saying goes, fool me once… and there’s nothing worse for a politician’s re-election chances than a bunch of voters who feel they were scammed.

    Oh, wait a minute, I got it figured out. You all know this and figure the best way to keep Obama doing the wrong thing is to complain about what he’s doing… if you didn’t complain, he’d know you were up to something.

    steve sturm (369bc6)

  32. He will double-down because he has very thin skin and takes all criticism as a personal attack.
    He is, at heart, a street-thug; not the intellectual he poses as.
    All the opposition has to do is to keep the focus on his failures and they will magnify as he goes from bad to worse.

    AD - RtR/OS! (e6a9d0)

  33. Absolutely right on target, AD!

    The O man will definitely double down because his vision of America is the correct one.

    He knows it all.

    We see how well that is working with our economy.
    As Carville said: it’s the economy, stupid.

    I am expecting a total blood bath for the Dems next year. YEAH!!!

    Charlotte (dad663)

  34. The 10,000 pennnies guy has been tweeting about his saved/created jobs search. Best one yet is recovery.gov’s claim to have created 75,300.8 jobs in a CA zip code that only has a total population of 16,600. FYI, he tweets as PoliticalMath. Smart guy.

    sybilll (0f58c6)

  35. One of the conditions for an award under these proposals is that the prospective supplier must document the number of jobs created/saved should the supplier receive the award.

    The awardees will have no trouble doing so. After all, the methodology was established by General Westmoreland.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  36. STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS!

    To follow up on Steve Sturm’s comment, as a conservative I am outraged by the deception of the Obama administration.

    As a mushy middle-of-the-road voter, I am interested in the success of the stimulus and would like to see more statistics.

    JayC (0a3ab7)

  37. I’m keep complaining. I’ve never seen any evidence that Obama would adjust to criticism.

    And so what if he did? That would be a good thing. He might have told everyone that he’d give them exactly what they wanted, before he had ever actually done anything, but that dog won’t hunt.

    Obama can’t run on honest and open government. He can’t run on tax cuts. He can’t run on foreign policy. He can’t run on the economy. He can claim these issues are murky, at best, and run on giving away free stuff (which sadly, is not an instant loser).

    If Obama were to turn around on the lies, stimulus, and various other positions, I think it would be a very good thing, and I even think voters would understand. He is, after all, just learning how to lead. Most folks need time to figure it out.

    Dustin (bb61e3)

  38. Yes, but how long can the country afford to wait for the Man-Child to mature?

    AD - RtR/OS! (e6a9d0)

  39. From your link

    “District spokeswoman Kim Norris said the “stabilization” part of the stimulus — designed to make up state education aid to districts that otherwise might have been cut — makes up about 6 percent of Columbus schools’ state aid. So, she said, if it hadn’t been for the stimulus money, the district “would have had some decisions as what to do with that shortfall.”
    So although 36 principal jobs were not specifically saved, something likely got saved somewhere in the budget, she said.
    Columbus also reported the full-time equivalent of 84 part-time reading tutors’ jobs saved, plus six teachers who work in the district’s most academically troubled schools.
    Still, it’s difficult to attribute those jobs’ survival to the stimulus spending, Dannemiller said.
    “It’s a difficult question because we didn’t have to face that question, because we knew the money was coming,” she said.
    The district doesn’t know what will happen to the positions when the stimulus money runs out, Dannemiller said. The district might end up keeping them, depending on its financial situation.”

    It amuses me that you’re so opposed to what works according to the standard model. It’s worked for China, and Beijing’s stimulus has dwarfed anything Obama proposed. You hate Krugman, but here he’s citing Friedman; krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/another-temporary-misunderstanding/

    And: businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2009/gb20090422_793026.htm
    “China’s Stimulus Package Boosts Economy
    From increased sales for construction companies and automakers to a reawakened real estate market, China’s stimulus plan is working—so far”
    More from google: google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=china+stimulus+package&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
    You’re so committed to your fantasies that you can’t even think realistically, or maybe that just doesn’t interest you. It certainly hasn’t in Iraq or Afghanistan. Who gave us Karzai anyway? Not the Afghan people, they wanted the old king.

    The stimulus is like the original force levels in Afghanistan: too small. Heck of a job kids.

    bored again (d80b5a)

  40. Heck of a job kids.

    Your clown did this. Blame him.

    But I think it is cute that you are referring glowingly to the Chinese when many’s objection is that our economy is heading in a similar direction.

    So although 36 principal jobs were not specifically saved, something likely got saved somewhere in the budget

    Something somewhere somehow got saved, and we must praise Barcky !!!!!!!!!!!!

    JD (6dce29)

  41. “…Not the Afghan people, they wanted the old king…”

    Did they?
    I must have missed the plebiscite.
    It was the World’s impression that a confab of the “war-lords” was held (which included the old king, and that the consensus victor was Karzai.
    But, I guess consensus is only determinate when talking about AGW – even if it doesn’t exist.

    AD - RtR/OS! (e6a9d0)

  42. Oops!…substitute “)” for “,” following “king”.

    AD - RtR/OS! (e6a9d0)

  43. Seeing as how the segment of the voting population that overwhelmingly went for BHO in ’08 was voters under 30,
    you may rightly direct your sarcasm for current conditions to “the kids”.
    They did it….
    And they’re going to have to pay for it…
    For the rest of their working lives!

    AD - RtR/OS! (e6a9d0)

  44. Every time “bent down in front of Andrew Sulivan again” comes around, we’re going to get lefty nonsense. Just ignore the catamite.

    nk (df76d4)

  45. I’ve created and saved jobs without getting a federal nickel or even a stray yuan… where’s my cookie!

    SteveG (97b6b9)

  46. Every project I sell creates or saves at least 12 jobs.

    JD (6dce29)

  47. I can save my own job by keeping my mouth shut… do I get credit for that?

    I can save a job at the sewer district every morning too… while reading the LA Times!!!!

    SteveG (97b6b9)

  48. AD – RtR/OS!: “It was the World’s impression that a confab of the “war-lords” was held (which included the old king, and that the consensus victor was Karzai.”
    It may have been your impression, but the rest of the world knew otherwise. But I guess to you, you are the world.
    ciponline.org/asia/archives.htm
    Archived from the International Herald Tribune

    “In the weeks before the loya jirga, Pashtun tribal delegations totaling 70,000 streamed into Kabul to pay homage to the king. This alarmed U.S. diplomats and generals, who have found Karzai a compliant partner and get along well with the Tajik military and secret police barons.
    On the eve of the loya jirga, the White House special envoy in Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, openly demanded that Zahir Shah renounce his presidential candidacy to avoid a “divisive” situation. Khalilzad confronted the king in a well-publicized meeting that one of the royal advisers described to me as “unpleasant.”
    Khalilzad is now reviled as “the viceroy” by many Pashtuns, who refer to the once welcomed U.S. forces in Afghanistan as an “army of occupation.”

    It’s not your ignorance that’s so disgusting it’s that its willed. You choose not to know. None of this is was a secret.

    washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603394.html?sid=ST2009102804746
    Read Matthew Hoh’s resignation letter.
    —-

    JD: “But I think it is cute that you are referring glowingly to the Chinese when many’s objection is that our economy is heading in a similar direction.”
    No. Thanks to you and those like you, it seems more and more to be headed in the opposite direction: decline.

    bored again (d80b5a)

  49. We understand that you have an inherent need for obfuscation and dishonesty, ba. It is sad.

    JD (6dce29)

  50. I’ll give Blood Alcohol Content a bit of credit. At least he dropped the obvious lie that was the third word in his moniker. (Not that he dropped any obvious lies in what he puts before his moniker.)

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  51. The Chicago Tribune has front page headline article today about the inaccurate numbers in Illinois. Dolton-Riverdale is listed as having 382 teaching jobs saved, yet they only have 240 full-time teaching jobs. Same for North Chicago schools – 473 saved, but only 290 teachers.

    Chicago Tribune 11/04

    Paul (f708d1)

  52. Paul – That should sting even more, since that is Barcky’s hometown fishwrap.

    JD (57d75b)

  53. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/education/edlife/01public-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
    “While U.C.L.A.’s money woes are extreme, they are familiar to many flagship universities. The University of Arizona, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Florida are among many that are scrambling because states are kicking in shrinking portions of their budgets.

    In this particularly hard year, in which university endowments have been hammered along with state coffers, federal stimulus money has helped most avoid worst-case scenarios. The 10-campus University of California system, for example, has received $716 million in stimulus funds to offset its $1 billion gap. But that money is a temporary fix. A quip circulating among college presidents: The stimulus isn’t a bridge; it’s a short pier.
    This fall, flagships still had to cut costs and raise tuition, most by 6.5 percent or more. And virtually all of the nation’s top public universities are likely to push through large increases in coming years.”

    But of course education doesn’t interest you.

    bored again (d80b5a)

  54. Why not just cut the Womyns Studies, Black Studies, Transgengender Gay and Lesbian Studies, Latino Studies, Departments?

    Stop creating dumb jobs.

    PS: Not all education is equal.

    SteveG (97b6b9)

  55. AP takes a look at Obama’s phony jobs math.

    WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s economic recovery program saved 935 jobs at the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, an impressive success story for the stimulus plan. Trouble is, only 508 people work there.

    The Georgia nonprofit’s inflated job count is among persisting errors in the government’s latest effort to measure the effect of the $787 billion stimulus plan despite White House promises last week that the new data would undergo an “extensive review” to root out errors discovered in an earlier report.

    About two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs claimed to be saved under one federal office, the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, actually weren’t saved at all, according to a review of the latest data by The Associated Press. Instead, that figure includes more than 9,300 existing employees in hundreds of local agencies who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren’t saved.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  56. AP takes a look at Obama’s phony jobs math.

    Only about 9 months late to the game. Enron accounting in government? The devil you say.

    Hadlowe (3361fc)

  57. […] I REALLY don’t understand how the Obama administration is responsible for each state’s cooking of their books, and […]

    Billie’s Quickies … “Spam Jam 2010?” WTF? « Daily Dose (66110a)


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