Funny Numbers

I call BS.

Nearly 650,000 jobs have been saved or created under President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, the government said Friday, and the White House declared the nation on track to meet the president’s goal of 3.5 million by the end of next year.

Given what we already know about the fraudulent ways these numbers are generated, I have absolutely no confidence in the accuracy of their number.  Even if it’s true, consider this:

In Wisconsin, 10,073 full-time equivalent jobs were listed as saved or created based on the partial accounting so far. A majority are in the “saved” category because funds were used to fill budget holes by state and local governments.

By the numbers, that’s 1.6% of the jobs saved or created nationally based on the latest report. The state has been awarded $2.4 billion, 1.5% of the national figure, according to official figures posted at Recovery .gov, the U.S. government Web site.

Does anyone seriously believe that there would have been a wave of public employees being fired if not for the stimulus money?  Yeah, me either.  But if you run the numbers, that’s still $238,261 per job allegedly saved or created.  That’s hardly an example of the efficient use of resources.