Beefing up economy? Or baloney?
News that federal stimulus job-creation statistics have been vastly overstated by the government is hardly surprising, and neither are the proliferating examples of questionable stimulus spending.
When the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was rushed through Congress in February, the Obama administration said it was necessary to keep unemployment rates below 8 percent and promised that the spending would "save or create" thousands - if not millions - of jobs.
It was obvious from the start that statistically demonstrating how many jobs are saved by government spending would be impossible, and that stimulus employment estimates would be flimsy at best.
That's turned out to be the case.
The government's first estimate of stimulus job creation, released last week, claimed that more than 30,000 jobs have been funded by recovery money.
But an Associated Press analysis has found that claim to be overstated by at least 5,000 jobs, and in some specific examples, employment estimates were 10 times higher than the actual number of jobs created.
Some embarrassing stimulus spending has been revealed: A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs, but none were created; a Florida child-care center claimed 129 jobs were saved, but the money actually was spent on raises for current employees.
There are also many examples of recovery projects across the country where it's difficult to discern exactly how they will stimulate jobs or the economy.A $219,000 stimulus grant to study the sex lives of freshmen women at Syracuse University? How about $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan., or $173,000 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Illinois?
And right here in Montana, about $15 million in stimulus money was directed toward upgrading a customs station in the tiny border town of Whitetail, where an average of three vehicles cross the border daily.
It has long been obvious that stimulus spending would favor particular employment sectors. There is no question that stimulus spending has saved teachers' jobs and other government jobs, and here in Montana it appears that stimulus spending will provide a temporary infusion for construction companies and other types of contractors.
Who knows how many jobs will be "saved or created" in reality?
Even if it ends up being in the hundreds of thousands, it is painfully obvious that millions of people have lost their jobs, with unemployment topping 10 percent nationwide and easily surpassing that level in some states.
We've said it before: A stimulus package with broader tax cuts and other incentives for businesses to invest would have been far more effective in true job creation across the economy.