ABC News broke the story this week of an executive administration that, ambitious to appear in control of the economy during this steep recession, reported patently false stimulus-related employment information. The Recovery Board, a task force created to track the $787 billion in federal stimulus spending, published on its website data for jobs “created or saved” in congressional districts that don’t even exist!
In one example, the stimulus tracking website reported that 30 jobs have been “created or saved” in Arizona’s 15th congressional district. Arizona only has eight congressional districts.
Late Monday, officials with the Recovery Board created to track the stimulus spending, said the mistakes in crediting nonexistent congressional districts were caused by human error.
“We report what the recipients submit to us,” said Ed Pound, Communications Director for the Board.
Pound told ABC News the board receives declarations from the recipients - state governments, federal agencies and universities - of stimulus money about what program is being funded.
Has the government ever heard of research assistants? Fresh college grads willing to do menial tasks (like research and fact-checking) for a small pittance are in no short supply in Washington DC. Hiring a small staff of people to double-check the validity of reported numbers would be a minor cost for the Recovery Board, but it would save them the embarrassment of looking either shady and deceptive or downright incompetent.
It’s rather laughable. And too be expected of the government particularly. Sure people make mistakes and I’ll give them that, but again and again does not inspire confidence. This is one more shoe fall that is driving the dollar down. Investors and citizens alike know that all this spending and mismanagement of money does not bode well. Throw into the mix the healthcare thing and it explains this morning why gold hit $1,153.50 an ounce. I watched it this morning with the application http://www.learcapital.com/exactprice and you could see the market react to this news and the CPI news.
People know this spending spree is unsustainable.
you just got yourself a place in my bookmarks
Hey, thanks Teddie! Hope to see you ’round the comment section in the future!