"Stimulus" Fuzzy Math of the Day: Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 12:33 PM by Mattie Duppler

In hopes of getting a clearer picture on “stimulus” spending in their state, a Pennsylvania journalist did some comparisons between the state recovery site and the federal one to hope to find clues that would account for errors in the reporting data. What they got, however, was insight into just how misguided the entire reporting system is.

Reporting from York County, the writer hoped to find their area’s “stimulus” projects on the state and federal sites. The state site only provides aggregated data on department spending while the federal site misplaces projects entirely – a bridge that was slotted for “stimulus” funds in York County was listed as a project in a different county altogether, since the federal site also aggregates data on transportation projects.

Despite the President’s promise that Americans would be able to go online and “see where and how we’re spending every dime," in Pennsylvania both the state and federal "stimulus" sites have grossly inaccurate data on spending. One resurfacing project was listed on the federal site for $3.6 million, while the state portal estimated it received $3.1 million. The actual cost of the bid the company received was $2.84 million.

How have these discrepancies affected the overall “jobs saved/created” claim made by the president? Well, the federal recovery portal boasts 6,706 jobs were saved or created in the Keystone State while the state site claims only 2,907. And odds are good that neither of these numbers are correct.

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