Unbelievable: Obama asking states to lie when counting jobs 'saved or created' by stim bill

President Obama is going to have a triumph with his stim bill - even if he has to get the states to fudge the number of Americans it's supposed to be helping.

It won't matter if unemployment tops 10%. Obama will simply point to these fictional numbers he will be getting from states and say, "You think it's bad now? Look at how bad it would have been if I hadn't acted?"

It's a win-win situation; and Obama is rigging the final score:

Meanwhile, some state officials worried about how they were supposed to count jobs credited to the stimulus. Now, the White House Office of Management and Budget has given states guidance calming these concerns.

"All we're asking them to do is a simple headcount; tell us how many people you hired," said Rob Nabors, the deputy director of the office, in an interview.

Recipients won't be asked to grapple with complicated estimates, he added. Instead, they may use their best guess whether a job would have been created or saved in the absence of a recovery plan, and to not count it if they are uncertain.

Philip Mattera, research director for the economic development research group Good Jobs First, said the method appeared to be "a bit impressionistic" and presented pitfalls. "One is the risk of unreasonable reporting; the other risk is how the whole system is perceived because of the possibility of unreasonable reporting," he said.

Craig Jennings, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan OMB Watch, also said the new guidance could allow state officials to use their own definition for the number of hours in a "full-time equivalent" job, thus making it possible to credit stimulus projects for more employment.

That's a quote from a piece by Louise Radnofsky of the Wall Street Journal who points out that such vague means by which to count jobs comes as a "relief" to state officials who can now not only help out the Obama administration but also do a little boasting of their own about how many jobs have been "saved" by our Messiah.

No doubt we will hear one day from the White House that the stim bill is a spectacular success. Will the people buy it?


Hat Tip: Ed Lasky