How awesome is Obama? Pretty awesome - per the AP, the Pelosi/Reid/Obama stimulus bill saved 935 jobs at a Georgia state agency that only employs 508 people.
For decades in Chicago dead people voted; now Obama has figured out how to put them to work.
PROPS WHERE DUE: AP reporter Matt Apuzzo has a byline in this. A couple of years back we praised his effort in covering the Plame case, so keep his name in mind as an example of a credible AP guy.
Is this that "multiplier effect" I keep hearing about?
Posted by: bgates | November 04, 2009 at 03:12 PM
That's a great story and Apuzzo is a great guy.
Posted by: clarice | November 04, 2009 at 03:29 PM
It's even greater than you say. These people are not dead, nor undead. They never existed. They are purely fictional... not even hypothetical as it is known for a fact that they do not exist. It makes Hoffman's climb from single digits to near victory look utterly puny.
Posted by: megapotamus | November 04, 2009 at 04:07 PM
If I give my son an increase in his allowance, does that count?
Or did I take a job away from some other kid who would come in and take up the extra jobs the allowance increase was paying for?
Posted by: Jack is Back! | November 04, 2009 at 04:24 PM
With this kind of math how can he run around complaining about Malia's school grades.
(Sidwell and the other top private schools here are not for lay about students like Malia's parents apparently were.)
Posted by: clarice | November 04, 2009 at 05:18 PM
And then there's AP's report on the ineffectiveness of the cash for clunkers program:Heh 2 for 2:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091104/ap_on_bi_ge/us_cash_for_clunkers
Posted by: clarice | November 04, 2009 at 05:23 PM
Dang--LUN
Posted by: clarice | November 04, 2009 at 05:23 PM
But-but, I don't understand. The official government website for cash-for-clunkers (LUN) says that the program was "enormously successful."
Posted by: jimmyk | November 04, 2009 at 05:35 PM
I don't know what tuition is at Sidwell's, but last night Steve Forbes told Cavuto that in NJ per pupil spending is $20,000 per year. That's incredible, especially given the relatively poor performance of schools there. Obviously, the money isn't making it to the classroom.
Posted by: DebinNC | November 04, 2009 at 05:38 PM
Can I point out that the reason they came up with 935 jobs saved from an employee base of 508 people is that they don't know how to use percentages? HHS told them to count the number of jobs saved as the same percentage as their raise. The received a 1.84% raise, so of course 1.84% of 508 = 935.
Obamath at work.
Posted by: motionview | November 04, 2009 at 05:46 PM
motionview- HHS apparently doesn't know how to use percentages either if the answer was supposed to come out to anything but ZERO.
Posted by: MayBee | November 04, 2009 at 06:13 PM
And when Obama signs the Defense Bill he will have SAVED literally millions of military jobs.
Posted by: pops | November 04, 2009 at 06:16 PM
The idea of counting any portion of people receiving a raise as a job saved is ludicrous. Without the raise, people may leave the job for one that pays better, but the job itself doesn't disappear. Another person is hired to do the job.
The WH is full of idiots....
Posted by: bad | November 04, 2009 at 06:27 PM
If raises are counted as "jobs saved",then pay cuts and hours cut must be counted as "jobs lost".
Where the $%&#$ is Rick. We need data.
Posted by: unɹ puɐ ʇıɥ | November 04, 2009 at 06:34 PM
I'm hoping Rick's grandchidren are on a fall break from school and he is vacationing with them.
But I'm pretty nervous about his absence.
Posted by: bad | November 04, 2009 at 06:39 PM
Far be it from me to defend the WH, but sometimes when a person leaves the civil service, the job really does cease to exist. It can be very difficult to open a slot for new hires for certain positions, and the organization will have to poach someone from another part of the government, or learn to go without.
Posted by: Matthew Crandall | November 04, 2009 at 10:47 PM
You found one!
Every AP reporter I track turns out to be a leftist loon.
Posted by: Greg Ransom | November 04, 2009 at 10:49 PM
Matthew-
Unless, of course, you can't find the truck they're sleeping in. Will you please learn how jobs are filled in Chicago? You can vote? Can't you?
Posted by: Melinda Romanoff | November 04, 2009 at 10:51 PM
Me, too, bad, but I recall he said he was busy --among other things with a move. I've written him but have had no answer. Maybe he's in Italy. I hope.
Posted by: clarice | November 04, 2009 at 11:06 PM
Speaking of saving jobs--public employee union jobs whose dues go to the campaign funds of Democratic candidates--Michael Barone has a brilliant survey overview of Tuesday's Biggest Loser: the Union Agenda.
Posted by: anduril | November 04, 2009 at 11:28 PM
I agree..it's brilliant.
Posted by: clarice | November 04, 2009 at 11:34 PM
Matthew- I don't think that's any different from the private sector.
Posted by: MayBee | November 05, 2009 at 12:08 AM