Stephen Spruiell on National Review Online

Stephen Spruiell on National Review Online: "There have been dozens of news reports exposing tens of thousands of stimulus jobs as frauds — David Freddoso and Mark Hemingway of the Washington Examiner put the number of phony jobs at about 75,000. They found more than 100 separate incidents, but these incidents can be grouped into seven categories, representing the seven biggest lies the administration is telling you about the stimulus:



1. Raises = jobs: This one turns out to be pretty common. For example, the Associated Press reported that one nonprofit in Georgia used stimulus money to give its employees raises, then multiplied its total number of employees (508) by the percentage points of the raises (1.84) and told the White House that the stimulus had saved 935 jobs. (Its directors said they were just following instructions they received from the White House.) Other nonprofits did the same. According to the AP, this fraud exaggerated the number of jobs created or saved by 9,300.



2. Number of people who might benefit = jobs: According to the AP, East Central Technical College in Georgia used more than $200,000 in stimulus money to buy “trucks and trailers for commercial driving instruction, and a modular classroom and bathroom for a health education program.” Officials at the college reported that the spending created or saved 280 jobs, at a cost of $715 for each one. That’s miraculous — and impossible. As it turns out, “The 280 were not jobs, but the number of students who would benefit” from the spending."