Obama: Stimulus saved 1 million jobs (Politico)

[jefferson_dem]

Obama: Stimulus saved 1 million jobs
By MIKE ALLEN | 10/30/09 7:24 AM EDT

White House officials, under pressure from the economy's continuing job losses, plan to announce Friday that President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan "has created and saved at least 1 million jobs" since he signed it in February.

A senior administration official e-mails the details:

"Earlier this month, tens of thousands of state and local governments, private companies, colleges and universities and community organizations across the country submitted reports on how they have put Recovery Act funds to work through September 30th. Later today, when these totals are posted, we anticipate that these reports will credit the Recovery Act with directly creating or saving about 650,000 jobs. Because these reports show that less than half of the spending through that date created or saved about 650,000 jobs, they confirm government and private forecaster’s estimates that overall Recovery Act spending has created and saved at least 1 million jobs.

'The reports will be posted in-full on Recovery.gov this afternoon, offering the American people with more information about the Recovery Act at work than with any previous government program. Making this amount of information in this level of detail, available this quickly (just one month after the end of the reporting period) has never been done before. Once the data is posted, visitors to Recovery.gov will be able to see for each project who received the funds, when they received them, how they began to spend them and the jobs they have supported so far – all with the help of user-friendly mapping features that allow them to zoom in by state, zip code or Congressional District.

"Some key facts about the recipient reporting process: As mandated by Congress, these reports specifically focused on the approximately $150 billion of $339 billion spending through September 30, 2009 that includes projects and activities. Projects and activities includes things like education funding, highway repairs, and construction projects. The reports do not capture the job impact of the Act’s significant tax cuts, direct payments to individuals (such as Pell Grants and Unemployment Compensation), and grants and awards of amounts under $25,000 per recipient. The reports also do not capture the indirect job impact of the funds surveyed – when suppliers for Recovery Act projects hire to meet new demand or when workers hired on a Recovery Act project spends their paychecks. The majority of the funds were reported on by state governments, with both Republican and Democratic governors participating in the process.

"Today’s announcement follows yesterday’s news that the economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter of the year in stark contrast to the decline of 6.4 percent annual rate just two quarters ago. Analysis by both the Council of Economic Advisers and a wide range of private and public-sector forecasters indicates the Recovery Act contributed between 3 and 4 percentage points to real GDP growth in the third quarter, suggesting that in the absence of the Recovery Act, real GDP would have risen little, if at all, this past quarter."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28925.html

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. I hate Politico with the fire of a thousand flaming suns.

Truly.

[jefferson_dem]

2. I hear ya.

However, I think this story is important and looked for another link with text of the admin official email. No luck so we're stuck with politico

...or WSJ. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125689799688318277.html?mod=rss_economy

[joeycola]

4. ha ha.

[Clio the Leo]

5. And Papa Joe will lay it all at noon today....

... we'll get it straight from the Big Sexy Horse's mouth. :)

[Perky]

3. Thanks for posting this JD...Beat me to it by mere seconds n/t