Only in Your Dreams, Joe...

Friday, September 25, 2009 4:26 PM

In a discussion with some of the nation's governor's Vice President and "stimulus"-overseer-in-chief Joe Biden is reported to have made the  following assessment of the "stimulus" efforts:

"In my wildest dreams, I never thought it would work this well. Thank you, thank you."

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind taking a vacation in Vice President Biden's fantasy land, which must be the land of milk and honey. 

Things may be different in Joe Biden's dream world, but where I live the unemployement rate for August stood at 9.7 percent and some 2.4 million jobs have been lost since the "stimulus" package was passed. 

Remember, it was folks like Biden that told us at the beginning of the year that absent the "stimulus," which was supposed to be an immediate job-creation engine, the unemployment rate would go above eight percent.

Sure, the administration has proudly reported that the "stimulus" package has created some 25,000 jobs - for the government, but that is anything but good news for taxpayers. Here's why:  Assuming that these government workers are GS8 (mid-level) employees, they are paid $4.27 million over the course of their career (Click here for methodology).  This equals an increased taxpayer burden of $106,750,000,000.00.  Sounds like a bargain, doesn't it?

And while it may be interesting to see what the $18 million for the website overhaul has bought us when www.recovery.gov relaunches next Monday, we don't have much faith in the website when it comes to portraying job numbers. As we've pointed out on numerous occasions, the "jobs saved/created" metric on which the Administration has been basing their claims that the "stimulus is working" is seriously flawed.

Consider this example from Nevada:

 For instance, state Budget Director Andrew Clinger said he does not know yet how many jobs were created by the $2.2 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds allocated to Nevada.

But James Brandmueller, energy program manager for the State Office of Energy, said he knows exactly how many jobs have been created by his agency from the $35 million in stimulus funds that it has received. “Three,” he said.

Three jobs for $35 million...? Things are working great? Only in your dreams, Joe.

(h/t Jim Geraghty at The Corner)

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