The Obama administration, under fire for inflating job growth from the $787 billion stimulus plan, slashed over 60,000 jobs from its most recent report on the program because the reporting outlets had submitted “unrealistic data,” according to a document obtained by ABC News.
The Office of Management and Budget document shows that before an Oct. 30 progress report on the program the administration asked the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to remove information from 12 stimulus recipients that contained “unrealistic data,” including “unrealistic job data.”
Is the data perfect? Of course not, but the Obama is doing an admirable job trying to clear up inaccurate data. The sheer level of data being made available to the public is incredible, too — just take a look at the map which breaks down every single award, including a brief description of the project. While America has always had a relatively open government, we’ve never had this amount of data presented so openly for the American people to view.
It strikes me as incredible that groups like the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota are complaining about minor inaccuracies in the data. FFM’s complaint is that recovery.gov shows spending and job figures for non-existent congressional districts in Minnesota. And it’s true — 0.3 percent of the data from Minnesota appears to be improperly attributed to incorrect congressional districts. This is a tiny mistake, yet a mistake nonetheless, and one that I’m sure will eventually be cleaned up. The irony, though, is that FFM can only complain about the data in the first place because of the Obama administration’s unprecedented commitment to make it available to us in real time.
Are you serious? So, 12 non-existent congressional districts in AZ that show job creation is a "tiny" mistake. And, that's just one of many examples. I don't suppose you would buy into the theory that they are trying to sensationalize the data to look favorable. Naw, I didn't think so. This is just another example of what happens when it's government's responsibility to run something efficiently. You can spin it however you like, but the American people wake up a tad bit more every time another boondoggle from the Obama administration gets reported (if it gets reported). I think "outrageous" and "ludicrous mistakes" were the terms used by congressman David Obey (D), Democratic chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, to describe his perception of the data.
Thanks, CMan.
The Kool-Aid spin presentations showcasing the wonderfulness
of our President’s leadership skills in several of the most recent posts
have left ME temporarily speechless.
I don't supose there would be any way of extending your speechlessness, would there?
CMan/Kathy, all you've done is once again illustrate that you hate Obama, and will criticize his every move.
Given that unemployment numbers during the Great Depression are still being revised, errors in "real time" statistics are to be expected. Conservatives misrepresenting the inevitable flaws of real time statistics for political gain is also to be expected, as recent history provides us with abundant examples.
This story should not be remarkable: errors were made, errors were spotted, errors were acknowledged. Big deal. The only reason this is at all noteworthy is as a demonstration of the change from the previous "heckuva job" done by a President who could not think of any mistakes he made in his first term (and who seemed genuinely puzzled by the question).
I am only going to throw this out there as a possible explanation why some of the "district" numbers don't make sense. In my daily job I deal with a fair share of state and federal reports. Most of them ask for your congressional district. But not everyone knows theirs. So when reviewing the results, the numbers that sometimes appear are the state house/senate district numbers. Minnesota has 67 senate districts, so that 57 which appeared on a form might very well be from someone in that senate district (though I will admit I have not reviewed the date like others have). Not everyone is a politically savvy as we are and if asked how many congressional districts there are in the state, the possibility of an "I don't know" is definitely there.
Again, just one possible explanation for some of the mistakes made.
Have there been any reports that these funds have been misallocated, or is this just a matter of typos and, as MRW suggests, honest mistakes by the non-politicized?
Funny….Zach tells how genuine obama is for correcting inaccuracies on a website that was meant to show how accurate they are….but ONLY after he got caught.
Hmmmmmmmmm.
Its funny to me. Democrats own the Federal Government in almost unprecedented numbers, Democrats have owned the MN legislature for some time now, yet all this highly Democratic site tends to talk about is how the Republicans are messing everything up. Well….we must be pretty darned smart then huh!
Much better to deny, cover up, or blame some poor fool you shouldn't have given the job in the first place, right, Don?