[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/17/art.recover.gov.jpg caption="How much faith do you have in stimulus spending?"]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty
The Obama administration is bragging about jobs "saved or created" in congressional districts that don't exist.
ABC News broke this incredible story, finding several examples on the government's recovery web site... including hundreds of millions of dollars spent and jobs created in nonexistent or misidentified districts.
For example – Recovery.gov says thirty jobs were created or saved in Arizona's 15th congressional district using under $800,000 in stimulus spending. There is no 15th Congressional district in Arizona. The entire state only has eight.
Garbage like this also turned up in Oklahoma, Iowa, and Connecticut -along with the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The Recovery Board - which was created to track the $787 billion in stimulus spending and provide an unprecedented level of transparency - is chalking up the mistakes to human error. They say they report what recipients, like state governments or federal agencies, submit to them and that some of those recipients don't know what district they live in.
Shouldn't someone in Washington know how many congressional districts there are in Arizona? We're being treated like mushrooms here, folks. Kept in the dark and fed a diet of - well, you know.
ABC News also reports that the White House deleted sixty thousand from the count of those "saved or created" in a recent report because the numbers were based on "unrealistic data."
Democratic Congressman David Obey, who chairs the appropriations Committee, calls the inaccuracies "outrageous" and says the administration owes "every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes."
SO HERE'S THE QUESTION:
How much faith do you have in stimulus spending if the administration reports job creation in places that don’t even exist?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Steve in Las Vegas
Why does this seem to get worse by the day? Complete ineptitude and bureaucratic bungling. I feel like the misinformation is completely out of control. The lies and BS keep piling up. Not to mention what the cost of this is. I sure hope Obamacare isn't run the same way. If it is, God help us.
Chandler in Rockaway, New Jersey
Jack, Yes, it's pretty stupid to make mistakes like that, but when the media (that is, you) holds trivial mistakes up for ridicule, it takes attention away from the main point. The stimulus was never designed primarily to create jobs.
Peggy in Spokane, Washington
As usual, Jack, the best job the government provides is the good ole' snow job.
Joe in Toledo, Ohio
Jack, This just confirms what many of us have been thinking: the administration has no credibility re: stimulus spending. The stimulus spending, as we find out more about it, has been in many cases ill-conceived and not stimulating in any way. It dramatically calls into question some of their other endeavors as well, not the least of which is their plan for health care reform
Mario
Let’s move to one of these fictional districts so we can take advantage of the stimulus money. This presidency is turning out to be a joke.
Jean in Houston
He's doing one heck of a job, Caffie! He's created not only jobs, but towns full of people to do them. Why so cranky? Try decaf.
Grady
Now, Jack, you're looking at it all wrong. If President Obama can save/create thousands of jobs in places that don't exist, think how well he must be doing in places that DO exist.