Posted by
RME KRNL on Friday, October 30, 2009 4:37:02 PM
October 30, 2009 - POLITICO Breaking News: White House officials, under pressure from the economy's continuing job losses, plan to announce Friday that President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan "has created and saved at least 1 million jobs" since he signed it in February.
Now, in more fairness to POLITICO than they give us in many of their liberally slanted stories, they aren't saying this "breaking news" is TRUE; only that they are "breaking" the "news" that this is what the White House is going to CLAIM.
But, anyway, I just LOVE "Breaking News," don't you? It always sounds so EXCITING.
"And, next, BREAKING NEWS! But, first, a word from our sponsors."
And it's always best if seriously intoned by a male with a good baritone voice, too. You know, the kind that gives MSNBC's Chris Matthews a "tingle" up his leg, or the voice in which Keith Olbermann -- known to me as Monsieur Pomposity d' Blowhard (pronounced with a French accent) -- "intones" almost any and every ridiculous thing he says.
(Side note on Olbermann's style: I learned years ago when teaching via facilitating small group dynamics in experiential learning that when you learn to fake sincerity, you've got it made.)
But, I digress. A good "breaking news" announcement hearkens back to earlier, more Golden Days of radio and TV, with such catchphrases as Walter Winchell's "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America, from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea," or Edward R. Murrow's "Good night.....and good luck," and even Walter Cronkite's "And that's the way it is..."
Good stuff! Of course, when it turns out to be just a big bucket of BS, then THAT'S kind of disappointing, but what the hey? It was still exciting -- at least for a few seconds or so.
But, enough of my trip down memory lane and back to the White House claims of jobs "created and saved." That "metric," long used by the Obama administration now, of this or that not only being "created," which can be measured, but also "saved," which cannot be measured (when's the last time -- or the first time, or any time -- you could prove a negative?), has been so discredited, by so many people, from TV commentators to economists to mathematicians to almost anyone with a dab of common sense, that I don't know why such a "smarter than anyone else" White House staff as this one is supposed to be (do I need to identify the operative word in that phrase for you? -- hint: starts with an "s" and ends with a "d") keeps trotting it out almost every time you turn around. Unless, they personally have also really bought into one of the other things they do all the time -- say something which flies in the face of all known facts, say it often and say it with a straight face. I call it "the Obama because I SAY it is so, it IS so" technique. And this "technique" has now spread like the H1N1 virus seems to be (something else the Obama adminstration seems not to have been right on top of) to the Congress, too. I just KNOW Nancy Pelosi's caught it, and probably Steny Hoyer and Harry Reid, as well.
Well, here's the REAL "breaking news." The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board is the government watchdog group which oversees how the stimulus monies are spent. It reports that contractors who received money from Obama's failed $787 billion stimulus program "created or saved" 30,383 jobs (NOT "at least 1 million") by the beginning of October 2009.
Since the report covers only spending on infrastructure and social programs being carried out by private companies, which were awarded about $16 billion in stimulus funds, that amounts to $526,610 per job "created or saved."
That's roughly comparable to Spain's nation-wide failed experiment a couple of years ago in creating "green" jobs, which also cost about half a million dollars per job to create.....and many of them were not sustainable jobs, either, but only lasted for the life of the project which they were created to accomplish.....just like many "green" jobs currently being started up and touted in this country.
Hey, if you want to "save" my job or create a "green" one for me, don't bother. Just give me the half million outright and I'll be fine. Plus, I'll know a helluva lot better than the federal gub'ment seems to how to spend it, too.
So,
"Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America, from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea," and
"Good night.....and good luck,"
"And THAT'S the way it (really) is..."