White House abandons job count method.

[BobRossi]

More "Change":

"WASHINGTON – The White House has abandoned its controversial method of counting jobs under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus, making it impossible to track the number of jobs saved or created with the $787 billion in recovery money.

Despite mounting a vigorous defense of its earlier count of more than 640,000 jobs credited to the stimulus, even after numerous errors were identified, the Obama administration now is making it easier to give the stimulus credit for hiring. It's no longer about counting a job as saved or created; now it's a matter of counting jobs funded by the stimulus.

That means that any stimulus money used to cover payroll will be included in the jobs credited to the program, including pay raises for existing employees and pay for people who never were in jeopardy of losing their positions.

The new rules, quietly published last month in a memorandum to federal agencies, mark the White House's latest response to criticism about the way it counts jobs credited to the stimulus. When The Associated Press first reported flaws in the job counts in October, the White House said errors were being corrected and future counts would provide a full and correct accounting of just how many stimulus jobs were saved or created."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100112/ap_on_bi_ge/us_stimulus_counting_jobs

[babylonsister]

1. You 'forgot' to mention why, despite what Issa the rethug says...

Good job. :eyes:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_STIMULUS_COUNTING_JOBS?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


The new rules are intended to streamline the process, said Tom Gavin, spokesman for the White House's Office of Management and Budget. They came in response to grant recipients who complained the reporting was too complicated, from lawmakers who complained the job counts were inconsistent and from watchdog groups who complained the information was unreliable, Gavin said.

"We're trying to make this as consistent and as uniform as we possibly can," he said.

The new stimulus job reports will continue to offer details about jobs and projects. But they were never expected to be the public accounting of Obama's goal to save or create 3.5 million jobs, Gavin said.

The quarterly job reports posted on the Web site for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board reflect only a fraction of the jobs created under the program and can't account for job creation stemming from other stimulus programs such as tax rebates and other federal aid, the spokesman said.

[Nikki Stone1]

3. IF you would stop seeing everything as a party issue, you would know that tinkering

with job data goes back 30 odd years (at least) and has occurred in both Democratic and Republican administrations. This is just the newest wrinkle.

[berni_mccoy]

4. Then this really isn't news now is it?

[Nikki Stone1]

9. It's news every time it's done: each time, the deception gets worse.

:(

[babylonsister]

6. Bull. And it's not a party issue, it's presenting the entire story,

not just the negative in the headline. I get enough of the bullshit headlines from places like politico and drudge, I just like to read the truth. Don't you?

[notesdev]

2. Controversial?

Howabout 'fraudulent'? That seems to be the truth of the matter, when you look at what jobs they've claimed to have created. Jobs in phantom zip codes, temp jobs, 'saved' jobs that weren't on the chopping block in the first place, and even if you take their numbers at face value they're spending something like a quarter million or more per job, when you should be able to get four or more jobs created for that money by the simple method of direct hires.

[babylonsister]

5. Quarter mil per job? Where'd you get that from? Link? nt

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[branders seine]

8. It's ludicrous to call it the 'the $787 billion stimulus.'

Two-thirds of that money went straight to big business or to supply-side republican-style tax schemes. trickle-down does not stimulate anything excet the rich man's wallet. Of the rest, most is either not being spent (and never will be spent), or has been pissed away on non-stimulating state and local budget games.

Who cares how they count the jobs? No one believes them anyway, no matter what imaginary number they throw out like a rancid hunk of whale meat to the trained dancing polar bear that is the US public.

[babylonsister]

10. What big biz? Do tell. Are you another one confusing TARP with

stim funds? :boring:

And try spouting some truth instead of your opinion, which is frankly lacking. But you don't care, do you.

http://projects.propublica.org/tables/stimulus-spending-progress

Stimulus Spending Progress

[midnight]

11. Stimulus spending progress...

A stimulus dollar goes through several different steps on its way from the government to a contractor’s pocket where, the hope is, it will be used to create or save jobs. For clarity, we’re using a slightly different breakdown than the government does. Government agencies mostly stick to the somewhat unclear — and overlapping — terms “Appropriated,” “Obligated” and “Paid,” but we’ve tried to give a clearer sense of where money is in the pipeline:http://projects.propublica.org/tables/stimulus-spending...

This chart was helpful in showing the big organizations that will be impacted directly, but I was wondering why the american tax payer has not received a check to assist in debt recovery like the banks? Along side the more traditional stimulus spending....