The Sacramento Bee reported November 6 that as many as one quarter of the more than 100,000 jobs reported as "saved" by President Obama's stimulus in California were likely never in jeopardy of being lost. The report is based on a review of the jobs by the Sacramento Bee.
The story says, "California State University officials reported late last week that they saved more jobs with stimulus money than the number of jobs saved in Texas – and in 44 other states. In a required state report to the federal government, the university system said the $268.5 million it received in stimulus funding through October allowed it to retain 26,156 employees. That total represents more than half of CSU's statewide work force. However, university officials confirmed Thursday that half their workers were not going to be laid off without the stimulus dollars."
So why would they report the jobs as saved if the jobs weren't going to be terminated anyway? Are they trying to pad the numbers to help the President? Or to get more dollars because of their "success?"
Clara Potes-Fellow, spokeswoman for California State University, is quoted as saying, "This is not really a real number of people. It's like a budget number."
What kind of coded talk is that? It sounds like she should be in Washington. She'd fit right in with the clowns in the House and Senate.
Referring to the talk about budget numbers versus "real people," the Bee says, "That certainly was not the way Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger described it at a news event with Vice President Joe Biden late last week, where he focused on people, not budgets. 'Anyone that criticizes the stimulus money should talk to those 100,000 people that have retained their jobs or gotten jobs because of the stimulus money, especially the 62,000 teachers that have kept their jobs or gotten jobs,' Schwarzenegger said."
Sounds like a bit of a disconnect, doesn't it?
The Bee continues, "Multiple cases of inflated and underreported job tallies have surfaced since the federal government released detailed stimulus reports last week, said Craig Jennings, a senior policy analyst at OMB Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that tracks federal spending. 'I don't think recipients know what they are supposed to put down,' Jennings said, referring to guidelines for estimating the number of jobs retained."
And then there's this: "In the case of the CSU system, spokeswoman Potes-Fellow said university officials followed federal reporting guidelines in calculating the numbers." So maybe the federal guidelines are structured to pad the numbers or to make the stimulus look more effective than it actually is.


Comments: 10
My son had one of the "jobs."
He's 14.
He made minimum wage for 10 weeks this summer. As did a whole lot of other kids in the area his age. It was made quite clear that the money used was stimulus money and that the job was only for 10 weeks. The administration used this to say they "created jobs."
Did he work for his money? Of course. BUT for them to count this as creating jobs???
That's RIDICULOUS.
Shouldn't a job they "create" be a place where money is earned to support families... to put food on the table and pay the rent and the bills???
These jobs supplied kids with a little fun money for the summer. While he was happy to work, I highly doubt it did anything for the economy.
I had doubts about this "stimulus" from the beginning and the more I see the more I hate it.
Oof! Whaa?
(crash, boom, bang)
When will Americans stop tolerating this?
their lips are moving
~~~