‘Data’ on Recovery.gov is Completely Made Up
Posted February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm in Ongoing Priorities 
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One of the stated missions of the Obama Administration’s new Recovery.gov website is to: “Provide data that will allow citizens to evaluate the Act’s progress and provide feedback.” Just how accurate is the ‘data’ on this taxpayer funded website?
We got a glimpse last week when Politico reported that the “Job Affect” numbers released by the White House simply did not add up. So the Obama Administration claimed that, as a state, California would get 396,000 new jobs under the economic stimulus bill. But when you added the totals up by Congressional District, the California was set to receive 421,900 new jobs.
The Obama Administration has since corrected these numbers so that the state and Congressional District totals match. You can go to Recovery.gov and move your cursor over a map of the United States to discover how many new jobs will supposedly be created in each state under the bill.
Politico’s Ben Smith called the data correction “a different kind of reminder of the roughness of these estimates.” Another way to put it, is that the Obama Administration is just making stuff up.
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9 Responses to “‘Data’ on Recovery.gov is Completely Made Up”
Mark,Houston on February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm said:
gee , that “kool-aid” is starting to taste kinda bitter….
John Galt on February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm said:
I wish I understood how they calculate a “saved job” and imagine anyone in the government making up anything to suit their purpose…
“One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.”
—Ayn Rand, 1975
Joe, USA on February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm said:
“Breaking News: Obama can’t predict future with 100% accuracy”
Great reporting. Of course the numbers aren’t exact. If they hadn’t put this site together you’d still be screaming about ‘big government accountability’ and not knowing where your ‘hard earned’ tax dollars have gone.
Why not wait until the details roll in, you know, once the programs actually get going and there are details to report, before passing judgment?
Imagine if Bush had put together iraqspending.gov to list all the money spent in Iraq in detail? Wouldn’t that have been nice to know (like how many shipping pallets of $100 bills were handed out to tribal leaders to get them to stop fighting, etc).
Regardless of what you think of the stimulus, I don’t see how a website that provides information and details is such a bad thing. If the details come out later, and you can prove them to be politically engineered crap, then you have a story. Until then, give it a chance.
Ozzy6900, CT on February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm said:
Seeing as how the Government lives by the motto “If you can’t impress them with intelligence, baffle the with bull’s excrement!”, accepting the data from a Government web site is absurd! Do they really believe the American People are that stupid? Well, some of the Obamaites really are, but for the most part, people are not that stupid.
Barb -mn on February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm said:
Isn’t this really Obama making stuff up?
It’s probably some kind of tracking device.
The president gives me NOTHING to trust. NOTHING of honesty. NOTHING OF INTEGRITY. He is an intimidator, a simple man of dangerous coercion.
Frank, Maryland on February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm said:
A phrase comes to my mind when I look at the Recovery.org website and I read the posted information: SMOKE AND MIRRORS!!
Barb -mn on February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm said:
How much is this costing us and where is the money going?
Pepe North West Colorado on February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm said:
OK, so go to the graph on recovery.gov. You will see an asterisk next to the Tax Relief part of the graph. The graph states that 288 billion dollars will go to Tax Relief. If you follow the asterisk, you find that 123 billion dollars of that Tax Relief got spread out through the other categories. Leaving only 165 billion dollars in Tax Relief. This is deceiving and needs to be changed. I ask that you all email them, as I have, and tell them to explain it or change it. I know that most people will see the graph and think that most of the money is going to Tax Relief, and never find out that it is not the case.
Dee Josephson Marshall, WI on February 18th, 2009 at 12:57pm said:
Hey Ozzy, YES the American people are that stupid and I’ll throw in greedy!