"Stimulus snow job"

Again, I wish that people would point out that this money has to come from someplace and that the government isn't creating net new jobs, but still this is an interesting list on how incompetently the Obama administration is adding up the numbers.

State and federal officials claimed that the stimulus money had saved 473 education jobs in North Chicago. But the school district there employs only 290 people. Officials claimed 166 jobs were saved in Wilmette schools. The real number: 0. The 382 jobs supposedly saved in Dolton-Riverdale? That's 142 more people than the school district employs. And on and on.

Across the country, journalists and government watchdogs are finding the same yawning gap between stimulus claim and stimulus reality.

Alabama housing authority officials said that a $540,071 grant would create 7,280 jobs. They were off by only 7,266 jobs, the Birmingham News reported.

ABC News reported that Moore's Shoes & Services in Campbellsville, Ky., claimed nine jobs were created from an $890 grant for nine pairs of work boots for the Army Corps of Engineers. Yes, $890. No zeros are missing.

The California State University system supposedly saved 26,156 jobs -- but that's more than half the university's statewide work force.

The Wall Street Journal found hundreds of reports that, taken together, artificially inflated the stimulus claims by at least 20,000 jobs. College work-study money? Jobs saved! Money spent to give some folks modest raises? Jobs saved! . . .