GOPers to Biden: Stop Using Stimulus Jobs Numbers

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe and Rick Klein report: Amid the growing outcry about inaccuracies in the Obama administration’s claims of stimulus job growth, top Republican lawmakers today wrote to Vice President Joe Biden asking the administration to stop promoting jobs “saved or created” by the program, according to a letter exclusively obtained by ABC News.

“Following documented gross inaccuracies and confusion associated with the counting of job claims, we ask that the Administration cease public use of the inaccurate jobs ‘created or saved’ metric and instead focus efforts on lowering the unemployment rate,” House Minority Leader John Boehner and House Oversight Committee ranking member Darrell Issa say in the letter.

In their Oct. 30 report on the program, the administration announced that 640,000 jobs have so far been saved or created by stimulus funds -- a number the White House says it continues to believe is accurate. But in recent weeks these claims have been damaged by numerous reports.

Last week, ABC News reported that hundreds of these jobs listed as saved or created were listed as coming from Congressional districts that don’t exist.

...

In their letter to Biden, Boehner and Issa write, “The inaccuracy of the job creation and retention claims posted on the Administration’s website, www.recovery.gov, has not prevented Administration officials from touting this misleading and inaccurate number as evidence that the President’s stimulus spending package is succeeding even as the unemployment rate continues to rise. The reality is that the metric of jobs ‘created or saved’ was invented by politicians, not economists – it cannot be verified as accurate.”

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/11/gopers-to-biden-stop-using-stimulus-jobs-numbers.html

[The Northerner]

1. Fix the inaccuracies

There's not doubt that the stimulus created some jobs but the admin better fix the inaccuracies so that the wingnuts can't use that against the Dems.

Biden better act quickly

[Tempest]

3. They should fix their own inaccuracies first

Then they can throw stones.

[RedCloud]

5. Or their inadequacies to shut them up for all eternity!

[GMA]

7. Agree--

Just fix the mistakes. Another party's mistakes don't make these okay.

[Tempest]

2. From the party that brought us "death panels" and other health care lies

Biden should tell them to go fuck themselves on the Senate floor.

[treestar]

4. These Repukes can STFU

They would have done nothing. Let the market take care of it.

[ghurley]

6. The jobs were created, the distrists were the only data what was wrong

I forget where I saw Biden talking about this, but he said that the jobs that were created were actual jobs. It was the people that were reporting the number of jobs incorrectly entered the congressional district. Sounds like the form that needs to be used to upload the data needs to be a little more intelligent to avoid these mistakes (pick a state and only valid congressional district numbers should appear).

[Turbineguy]

8. They are right. It's not fair.

After all, George W never talked about how many people were losing their jobs thanks to his fuck-ups.

[Odin2005]

9. Oh, that's fucking rich.

[dnricci]

10. If I recall

The current numbers of jobs saved or created is correct. The administration was given fake numbers from non exist districts and instead of using the republican strategy of lying, they choose to be HONEST. The administration did not inflate the numbers, their own internal investigation figured out the truth, and they went with it.

[Alcibiades]

11. Biden's number is as good as any

What with all the factual inaccuracies of the last administration that went completely unchallenged by the Republican congressional leadership, they lose all right to be calling out this administration on anything.

The fact that they think the number is wrong makes me think it's very accurate.

[ArcticFox]

12. Arctic Fox to Repukes: You got better figures?

[santamargarita]

13. Biden to GOP: Go Fuck Yourselves!

I hate these goddamn GOP scum!

[pundaint]

14. You can believe in those numbers every bit as much as you can believe in Change.

But Biden is only a weasel of the second order, Boehner is a first order weasel.

We should vote weasels of any order out of office.

Wouldn't it be fun to see how 433 brand new representatives divide up the office space? It would take their minds off screwing America on behalf of their corporate sponsors for a while.

[indypaul]

15. Tell me what is accurate about the policy of

cutting taxes and growing the economy and "market
corrections"? We listened
to that inaccuracy every time those idiots opened
their mouths. Didn't happen under "Raygun" and
even George H W recognized the inaccuracy of those
practices. Clinton made slight correction for eight
years and George W practiced it again for eight more
years and created the mess we are in now. You want to
talk about how many jobs have been saved or created and
expect perfection in 9 months after assisting in the
creation of this mess over two decades of total gross
mismanagement? You do not put a cow and a bull in the
pasture and get a calf the next day.

[Demeter]

16. Okay! Let's Talk Instead About All the Jobs Lost Since the First Stolen Election

while the GOP was fully in charge, shall we?

Those numbers are history, not subject to revision or "interpretation".