You have to love the example of the Parkland Sanitary District data being part of the White House claims. They took credit for 100 jobs that don’t even exist, at least 95 of which they overstated when the jobs really do begin. They took a 1900% markup on five phantom jobs — for a sewage project. If anyone doubted that the White House numbers were crap, this should utterly convince them.
More phantom jobs exist in Wisconsin’s data, all of it from contracts given directly from the federal government. One contractor claimed to have saved 24 jobs without receiving any money at all for that project, which may be the most efficient use of government funds in US history. Five low-income housing projects reported saving 38 jobs through renter’s assistance, even though it saved — at best — five jobs. It turns out that the money came from a HUD grant that had nothing to do with job creation.
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Its a great demonstration of what a giant scam the entire "saved and created" jobs count is. It's not possible to actually tally how many jobs have been "saved and created" since there is no indicator on the economy to gauge such results. Which is the whole reason why spending cheerleaders like Dave Obey are quick to tout it because they know its nearly impossible to prove otherwise.
It's important not to forget that as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Dave Obey is one of the main individuals responsible for the $787 billion epic disaster:
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Defense and No Apologies From Author of Fiscal Bill
WASHINGTON — When House Republicans look at the $825 billion economic package headed toward a vote this week, they do not see President Obama. To them, the bill personifies Representative David R. Obey, the prickly Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee and has spent 40 years in Congress as a champion of federal spending.
Included in the package is $30 billion to subsidize health insurance for those who lose their jobs, $20 billion to accelerate new health care information technology, $1 billion to renovate community health centers, $600 million to train health care workers, $15 billion to increase college Pell Grants and $4 billion to help communities buy and improve distressed properties.
Indeed, it was Mr. Obey, the third-most-senior member of the House, who, in large measure, shaped the bill, in concert with other House Democratic leaders. And though Mr. Obama has embraced the bill, not a single House Republican has lent it support. The president himself is scheduled to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to try to address Republican concerns that Mr. Obey and others are using the legislation to push vast amounts of money into health care and other favored initiatives.
“It is pretty obvious we are funding the chairman’s priorities,” said Representative Jerry Lewis of California, the senior Republican on the appropriations panel. Mr. Lewis described Mr. Obey as driven by a “pent-up desire to spend money in existing programs.”
But the plan is expected to pass with or without Republican support, and Mr. Obey makes no apologies for its contents. An essential part of responding to any economic crisis, he said, is looking out for those on the receiving end of the turmoil.
“You have to take into account the fact that there are certain people in this society getting crushed by this economy,” said Mr. Obey, whose work on the package left him worn down and struggling to regain his voice. “They lose their jobs, they lose their health insurance, they lose their ability to keep their kids in college.
“If you didn’t have two million additional people out of work, you wouldn’t have to be looking for ways to help them. What the hell do you do if the economy goes to hell and two or three or four million more people are out of work?”
Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, sees it differently. “This is 1936 economics,” Mr. Ryan said. “But it reflects David’s ideology and his economic doctrine. They took everything in their file cabinet that has been piling up for 100 years, threw it in this bill and called it economic stimulus.”
Mr. Obey, 70, the product of a Catholic blue-collar upbringing in Wausau, said that if he had sole ownership, he would have turned out a costlier measure with more health spending.
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Just to put things in perspective, if the $787 billion was divvied up amongst the residents of Wisconsin, each man, woman, and child would receive $139,837.35. That buys a lot of beer and cheese. Yes, our beloved Congressman Obey is to blame for saddling the entire nation and generations to come with massive high-interest debt that will do absolutely nothing to stimulate the economy. And no, he doesn't feel the least bit sorry about it. And why should he? He managed to funnel $2.25 billion in funds to the National Park Service to reward his own son.
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OBEY'S PORK
A top House Republican is demanding an investigation into whether the more than $2 billion for national parks in the House stimulus package is proper in light of the fact that the chief lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association is the son of House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey.
NPCA is a major player in advocating for national parks funding, and its senior vice president for government affairs is Craig Obey, son of the Wisconsin Democrat who has long been his party's top Appropriations Committee member.
The money included in the stimulus bill that passed Mr. Obey's committee - $2.25 billion - was about equal to the National Park Service's total yearly budget, and would be a staggering increase and almost three times the $802 million that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved for park spending in its stimulus bill.
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Sounds like it's time to send Dave Obey packing, and I'm not talking about a trip to Green Bay. Wisconsin needs a better representatitive.