by Mark Silva and updated
The Obama administration promised "transparency'' in the accounting of that $787 billion in economic stimulus spending.
Jonathan Karl and his eagle-eyed colleagues at ABC News saw right through it: In the case of those 30 jobs created or saved and $761,420 spent in Arizona's 15th Congressional District.
The state has eight.
Connecticut has no 42nd either.
But the meticulous accounting of where all the stimulus money is going at recovery.gov included tallies for Arizona's 15th, Connecticut's 42nd and more.
The Recovery Board chalked up the misstatements to human error.
""We report what the recipients submit to us," Ed Pound, communications director for the board, told ABC News. The board collects declarations from recipients of the cash - state governments, federal agencies and universities.
""Some recipients clearly don't know what congressional district they live in, so they appear to be just throwing in any number,'' Pound explained. "We expected all along that recipients would make mistakes on their congressional districts, on jobs numbers, on award amounts, and so on. Human beings make mistakes.''
California doesn't even have that many.
It's OK, though, there were no jobs created in the 86th, or the 40th.
ABC saw through the Recovery Board's transparency.
And now one congressman is seeing red:
Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, issued a statement demanding an update of the recovery.gov Web-site: "The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes...
"Credibility counts in government and stupid mistakes like this undermine it,'' Obey writes. "We've got too many serious problems in this country to let that happen.''
Obey's own Web-site touts the money spent in each of his district's counties.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), repeatedly has been asking of the stimulus spending: "Where are the jobs?''
A spokeswoman for Boehner reported today: "We went to recovery.gov to find out how the state of Ohio - a state with 18 congressional districts - fared. Guess what we found: TEN congressional districts in the Buckeye State that DO NOT exist received stimulus money.''
We know, at least, where some of the money is going. Millions went into the development of the Web-site, in Washington, which has no congressional district.
Comments
It appears that there is a great deal of waste, fraud and abuse in the Stimulus bill!
I will guess that it will be addressed just like the waste, fraud and abuse in the pending Health Care legislation.
But then again I have always believed in the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny.
Posted by: Pat H | November 17, 2009 3:10 PM
According to Don Fitzgerald's well grounded analysis, we need more of this kind of stimulus spending, because you know - if the Obama stimulus is this good, multiplying it by 10 get us back to full employment.
Joe Biden - the Obama bus honks for thee.
Obamatrons sure are smart! Thank God the adults are in-charge.
Posted by: Chris | November 17, 2009 3:20 PM
86th District? Do any of the 57 states even have that many districts?
Posted by: Herbie H. | November 17, 2009 3:25 PM
There are reports all over the country. Even the Chicago Obune had to report on shenanigans in this state.
What it basically comes down to is that the Obimbo shaministration has completely lied to Congress and the American people about the sham that is the Spendulus bill. The Scum-in-Cheif has touted these jobs saved and/or created for weeks now, even amping up the numbers each time: 650,000 jobs saved and/or created to over 1 million jobs saved and/or created.
Lying to Congress and lyring to the American people.
Time to impeach and remove this scum NOW! Remove Obimbo from an office he does not deserve nor can handle NOW, not next week, next month, next year or in 2012, but NOW!
By the way, Pelooony and Harry "Illegal Land Deals" Reid also have been lying about the jobs. They should be removed too.
No Obama, no Biden, no Peloony, no Reid. Get rid of them all. NOW!
Posted by: John D, still right, as usual | November 17, 2009 5:17 PM
There are an incredible number of errors made by this administration. Exxon demands perfection within their internal business affairs. Fox News is not allowed any errors. No errors allowed there. Counting something out: 1, 2, 3, 4, … is a fairly simple math kind of exercise, just a simple assignment of ordinal numbers, we would call it. How is it that so many errors are manifested in such a fairly simple math activity as counting, within this administration? Do Socialists have a problem counting? Maybe counting out loud with colored popsicle sticks would help.
This raises serious credibility issues. How can socialists, these Socialists, manage a $3.6 Trillion Federal Budget? How can the socialists manage a 1,990 page, $1.2 Trillion Health Care System? What do we need to “hope” for here? Oh, they are going to “fix” the climate of the entire damn world too? This is not even a credible horror movie.
Posted by: Django - N Exile In/Around the 30th Parallel | November 17, 2009 5:20 PM
Are these just errors on reports or bold face lies? Lets look:
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1) The numbers always try to print Team Obama in a better light.
2) NOT once has the numbers gone the other way. Like stateing that is saved 10 jobs but, find out it was really 50.
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Get the picture, was Wilson wrong? I think NOT!!!
Posted by: Crooks_In_DC | November 17, 2009 7:30 PM
Just when in the hell is the American public going to get fed up with all this B.S. the government is handing out?
This goes way beyond being a typo problem. This administration has lied so much their tripping over themselves.
Posted by: Paul | November 18, 2009 9:03 AM
Wow, 18 million dollars spent on a sham website to over estimate the number of non-existent jobs. These goofs need to man and just admit that the stimulus was a $787 billion dollar waste of money, like the majority of americans have already figured out.
Posted by: Dave | November 18, 2009 11:23 AM
Don??? little bill???
It's Bush's fault folks - there you have it from the professors of puke!
Posted by: springfield | November 18, 2009 4:37 PM
Have you seen districtscreated.org
This is a national problem with people stepping up across the country to "represent" these districts created or saved.
Posted by: Justin Binik-Thomas | November 29, 2009 4:53 PM