Exclusive: Jobs 'Saved or Created' in Congressional Districts That Don't Exist

[CG51]

Here's a stimulus (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/abc-news-exclusive-obama-administration-slashed-60000-jobs/story?id=9095621) success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/scrutiny-obama-stimulus-jobs-mounting/story?id=9075257) have been saved or created (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/10/obama-administration-stimulus-directly-saved-or-created-roughly-650000-jobs.html) with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/10/160000-per-stimulus-job-white-house-calls-that-calculator-abuse.html). At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/President44/) to track the $787 billion stimulus (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/10/obama-administration-stimulus-directly-saved-or-created-roughly-650000-jobs/comments/page/2/)says.
There's one problem (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8942985), though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.
And ABC News has found many more entries for projects like this in places that are incorrectly identified.
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.
"Some recipients clearly don't know what congressional district they live in, so they appear to be just throwing in any number. 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," Pound said.
The issue has raised hackles on Capitol Hill.
Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc, who chairs the powerful House appropriations Committee, issued a paper statement demanding that the recovery.gov Web site be updated.
"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."

ABC News was able to locate several examples on the government's Web site (http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx) outlining hundreds of millions of dollars spent and jobs created (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=7183746&page=1) in Congressional districts that have been misidentified.
For example, recovery.gov (http://www.recovery.gov/) says $34 million in stimulus money (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/07/is-the-stimulus-working.html) has been spent in Arizona's 86th congressional district in a project for the Navajo Housing authority, which is actually located in the 1st congressional district (http://www.recovery.gov/transparency/pages/RecipientProjectSummary508.aspx?AwardIdSur=4671&AwardType=Grants").
Click Here to Track the $787 Billion Stimulus Plan (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/10/obama-administration-stimulus-directly-saved-or-created-roughly-650000-jobs/comments/page/2/) The reporting problems are not limited to Arizona, ABC News found.
In Oklahoma, recovery.gov lists more than $19 million in spending -- and 15 jobs created -- in yet more congressional districts that don't exist.
In Iowa, it shows $10.6 million spent – and 39 jobs created -- in nonexistent districts.
In Connecticut's 42nd district (which also does not exist), the Web site claims 25 jobs (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/11/potus-to-announce-wh-job-creation-summit-in-december.html) created with zero stimulus dollars (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9090878).
The list of spending (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/10/obama-touts-good-economic-news-yet-warns-more-job-loss-to-come-.html) and job creation (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8888714) in fictional congressional districts (http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/11/the-magically-appearing-stimulus-jobs.html) extends to U.S. territories as well.
http://a.abcnews.com/images/site/img_bullet_orangedot.gif $68.3 million spent and 72.2 million spent in the 1st congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
http://a.abcnews.com/images/site/img_bullet_orangedot.gif $8.4 million spent and 40.3 jobs created in the 99th congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
http://a.abcnews.com/images/site/img_bullet_orangedot.gif $1.5 million spent and .3 jobs created in the 69th district and $35 million for 142 jobs in the 99th district of the Northern Mariana Islands.
http://a.abcnews.com/images/site/img_bullet_orangedot.gif $47.7 million spent and 291 jobs created in Puerto Rico's 99th congressional district.
The recovery.gov Web site was established as part of the stimulus bill "to foster greater accountability and transparency" in the use of the money spent through the stimulus program. The site is a well-funded enterprise; the General Services Administration updated it earlier this year with an $18 million grant.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jobs-saved-created-congressional-districts-exist/story?id=9097853

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Anyone else have Recovery.org bookmarked?

Also, you may want to go to the link as I am at work and may have jacked up the copy and paste.

[Chulo]

I posted a similar story a few weeks ago where
Stimulus jobs overstated in report

WASHINGTON – The White House is promising that new figures being released Friday will be a more accurate showing of progress in President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan. It aggressively defended an earlier, faulty count that overstated by thousands the jobs created or saved so far.
Ed DeSeve, serving as Obama's stimulus overseer, said the administration has been working for weeks to correct mistakes in early counts that identified more than 30,000 jobs paid for with stimulus money. He said a new stimulus report Friday should correct many mistakes an Associated Press review found that showed the earlier report overstated thousands of stimulus jobs.
"I think you'll see a pretty good degree of accuracy," DeSeve said in an interview.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs downplayed errors in job counts identified by the AP's review, telling reporters, "We're talking about 4,000, or a 5,000 error."
The AP reviewed a sample of federal contracts, not all 9,000 reported to date, and discovered errors in one in six jobs credited to the $787 billion stimulus program — or 5,000 of the 30,000 jobs claimed so far.
....




Rest here
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=167877

[Wimbly]

Unless Bush or Republicans are somehow involved, nobody will care.

[Zarak]

I'm so glad that our government is able to spend our money so wisely and efficiently. Perhaps some day they will be able to bring that efficiency to the healthcare industry.

[Clockwinder]

I want to see accountability of the money given to Wall St. Those ivory tower bastard blood sucking morally corrupt a$$holes need to be tarred and feathered and run out of the country as traitors! Where's the outrage? Where's the Million Man March? Why are we allowing these low life douche bags to exist? Give their bonuses to the poor and the jobless and the foreclosed and the hungry. Storm the caste and burn it to the ground and kill the monster within.
The implementation (sic) of the stimulus and the total F.U. it is becoming is entirely the result of government ineptitude and incompetence by the public "servants" managing the program. You put bureaucrats in charge and you expect success? The only difference is that if "private" industry handled it, there'd be so much siphoning and corruption, it'd have the same result.
All bow down to almighty dollar - there is no God but the dollar.

[0rphie]

People get so genuinely surprised like nobody expected this to happen. I personally believe that this is high end corruption and somebody has to be prosecuted for it

[LineDoggie]

Hmmmm, SO the WH & Obama have a website to tout the jobs the stimulus "made"(or "saved") and no one fact checks the input from the public? I could put in 150 Million new jobs in Flushing, NY? and these Schmucks would publicize it as long as I got the Congressional district correct?

BRILLIANT!

[bono]

You got that right. MSM will not touch it.


Unless Bush or Republicans are somehow involved, nobody will care.

[CG51]

http://www.bls.gov/web/laumstrk.htm

^ Unemployment by state as of 9/09.

Florida is higher than the national average at 11%, Michigan being the worst at 15.3%.

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&met=unemployment_rate&idim=county:CN120350&q=flagler+county+unemployment+rate

^ Flagler county, Florida is 16.2% unemployment. I bet homes are pretty cheap there.

[Wimbly]

Morning Shows Devote a Combined 21 Seconds to Controversy of Job Creation in Fake Congressional Districts (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2009/11/17/morning-shows-devote-combined-21-seconds-controversy-job-creation-fa)


NBC and CBS’s morning shows on Tuesday completely ignored the revelation that the Obama administration’s Recovery.gov website claims to have saved or created jobs in congressional districts that don’t exist. ABC’s Good Morning America devoted 21 seconds to the developing story. On ABCNews.com (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jobs-saved-created-congressional-districts-exist/story?id=9097853), Jonathan Karl wrote, "In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending." There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona. On Monday night’s World News, the network did manage a full report by Karl. He elaborated, "And it lists $34 million spent in Arizona's 86th district. That district doesn't exist either. In fact, in virtually every state, the website lists millions of dollars spent and hundreds of jobs created in fictional congressional districts."


So yeah, this is being swept under that big dirty rug like everything else has been.

[seraosha]

This is what folks voted for, so I guess it's working as intended.

[Clockwinder]

Morning Shows Devote a Combined 21 Seconds to Controversy of Job Creation in Fake Congressional Districts (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2009/11/17/morning-shows-devote-combined-21-seconds-controversy-job-creation-fa)

So yeah, this is being swept under that big dirty rug like everything else has been.

Don't worry, Fox and CNN will take up the slack.

[Arsenal]

I want to see accountability of the money given to Wall St. Those ivory tower bastard blood sucking morally corrupt a$$holes need to be tarred and feathered and run out of the country as traitors! Where's the outrage? Where's the Million Man March? Why are we allowing these low life douche bags to exist? Give their bonuses to the poor and the jobless and the foreclosed and the hungry. Storm the caste and burn it to the ground and kill the monster within.


Are you talking about TARP? About 70 billion of that has been paid back thus far. If you kill the monster now, how will we get any more of our money back? I'm afraid we won't see any of the money that we sank into the stimulus bill, especially from Puerto Rico which has gotten $6.5 billion is stimulus money despite not having to pay federal income taxes.