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Recovery.gov

Unless there is some major revelation about the inaccuracies in the jobs numbers coming out of President Obama’s administration through the Recovery.gov website, I’m going to drop this subject for a while.

The reason?

At this point, it seems clear to me that the numbers can’t be trusted, because there doesn’t seem to be any real accountability for where these billions of dollars have gone.

ABCNews.com reported this morning that the chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, Earl Devaney, has responded to questions from law makers about the accuracy of the number of jobs ‘created or saved’.

His response?

Your letter specifically asks if I am able to certify that the number of jobs reported as created/saved on Recovery.gov is accurate and auditable.  No, I am not able to make this certification.

Don’t worry, though, they are working on it and not just them. Mr. Devaney continues:

However, the Board, OMB, and other federal agencies are not the only entities looking at this data – state and local agencies and every American citizen who visits Recovery.gov is also looking at the data and will help drive the accuracy of the data in future reporting cycles.  So, although I am not able to certify to the accuracy of the data reported by Recovery Act recipients, I am confident that we have established a process that will lead to increasingly higher levels of accuracy in the future.

Translation: We can’t really say how many jobs have been ‘created or saved’ by stimulus funds, but, someday, we will.

Personally, I like the fact that “every American citizen who visits Recovery.gov” is a part of the team that will “help drive the accuracy of the data in future reporting cycles” – not only do we have to pay for it, we are expected to error check it.

Nice touch, that.

I also like the fact that, even though they can’t certify the data as accurate, the administration and Democrats in Congress seems to be willing to continue tooting their own kazoos about their success with the previous stimulus package (especially as they turn their attention to Stimulus II: This Time We Really Will Create Jobs).

Again, nice touch.

Here is a suggestion for the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Congress that would help kill two birds with one multi-billion dollar stone: Why not take a few billion dollars (you seem to have plenty to burn) and hire some of the roughly 15.7 million Americans who are out of work to error check this data?

You could pay 20,000 people $50,000 for two years with just $2,000,000,000 (yeah, I know that doesn’t include benefits or payroll taxes, but I’m aiming this at politicians, so I can’t get too accurate or complicated).

Right now, Recovery.gov reports that 640,329.18 jobs have been ‘created or saved’ using $158,976,620,895, which comes out to $248,273.27 per job.

If nothing else, my suggestion would be more economical.