The Whitehouse is claiming that the stimulus program saves jobs. A new report that will be released Friday afternoon is expected to show that the government stimulus program helped create or save roughly 650,000 jobs. This figure would signal that the stimulus has thus far been a success.
The report, which looks at $150 billion of the $339 billion spent for the stimulus, analyzes spending through September 30. It includes jobs data on numerous government agencies, private companies, colleges and more, showing how these organizations are using the stimulus funds. It does not include tax cuts or direct payments to individuals (i.e. small grants).
In a statement, Ed DeSeve, senior adviser to the president for Recovery Act Implementation said:
“These reports have been reviewed for weeks, errors have been spotted and corrected, and additional layers of review by state and local governments have further improved the data quality.”
“As a result, whatever problems the early and partial data had, the full data to be posted on Friday will provide the American people with an accurate, detailed look at the early success of the Recovery Act.”
Because the report only looks at less than half of the stimulus spending and will likely already show 650,000 jobs saved or created, the White House, whose goal was to create or save a million jobs, considers the $787 billion American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 a success.
But that is according to the White House, what about the American people? Did the stimulus program really creates or save jobs?
