Keep in mind, some of Obama's stimulus is still in Washington. Ohaha's saving it for imperiled Dems' 2010-12 elections.
BACKSTORY On June 9, 2009, Pres Ohaha called a press conference to announce, "Several financial institutions are set to pay back $68 Billion to taxpayers." Resonable people (taxpayers) assumed that any money or profit would be returned to the general funds from whence it had come .......in order to pay down the debt. The truth, however, is that the money returned by the banks is finding new life as part of what amounts to a Treasury Dept-controlled slush fund.
ABC News reported the WH invented 700 phantom Congressional districts that received stimulus grants (read money laundering).
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ABC NEWS, Nov 18, 2009----Stimulus grants: Why Was The White House Website Riddled With Errors?
Officials tell ABC News so far, they found 700 mistaken Congressional districts out of more than 130,000 stimulus grants. On Monday night, ABC reported on errors found on the website set up by the White House to track the number of jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus program. The website was riddled with reports of jobs in places that didn't even exist. That report prompted anger on Capitol Hill, and defensiveness at the White House. On Tuesday night's broadcast, ABC's Chief Congressional Correspondent Jon Karl took another look at the stimulus confusion (link)
LINK---Jon Karl: White House Vows to Correct Stimulus Reports Officials Tell ABC News So Far, They Found 700 Mistaken Congressional Districts Out of More Than 130,000 Stimulus Grants
SOURCE http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/11/why-was-white-house-website-riddled-with-errors.html
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Nov. 17, 2009 --- ABC NEWS' REPORTS---JONATHAN KARL, Chief Congressional Correspondent
When it comes to stimulus spending, could the wheels of government bureaucracy be grinding too quickly for once? Responding to more inaccuracies discovered in the reporting of spending and job creation from the administration's economic stimulus plan, the top White House official charged with overseeing the program vowed today to go through the reports with a fine-toothed comb and to correct the mistakes.
The promise came after ABC News found that Recovery.gov, the government Web site created to track the expenditures, had many job creation and stimulus spending figures that were attributed to congressional districts that do not exist, or that were incorrectly identified.
"The first time out, we knew there were going to be problems," said Edward DeSeve, special advisor to the president on the stimulus bill. "We don't think there are a lot of them. There are less than 1 percent in terms of the recent concern about congressional districts of the overall reports. And we've got a good commitment from the recovery board to work with us to fix them."
Officials tell ABC News, so far, they have found 700 mistakenly credited congressional districts out of more than 130,000 stimulus grants. The White House's Web site claims that more than 640,000 jobs have already been saved and created by the " $787 billion stimulus program. The reports used to come up with that number are riddled with errors.
In addition to the jobs in non-existent congressional districts reported Monday by ABC News, in real congressional districts, there are also problems, lots of them.
Moore's Shoes in Campbellsville, Ky., claims nine jobs were created from an $890 grant for nine pairs of work boots for the Army Corps of Engineers. Head Start of Augusta, Ga., claimed 317 jobs with a $790,000 grant, but it was really just a one-time raise to its 317 employees.
Chris Whitley is a fiscal officer for Central Savannah River Area Economic Opportunity Authority, which administers the Head Start program in Augusta. He says it was the administration's stimulus help line that advised them to claim 317 jobs. "It wasn't illegal, immoral or unethical. And they told me to do it, so I did it," said Whitley.
The mistakes have prompted anger on Capitol Hill. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, was outraged that one sewer project in his district was listed as creating 100 jobs. The real number is five. When asked what he thought when he saw the mistakes in his district, Obey said, "I wanted to strangle somebody."
Obey is demanding the administration fix the mistakes. "Fix the problem, the blessed problem, so that we're getting accurate information. I don't care what people's bureaucratic niceties are, or how hard it is to do it. I mean, they've got to fix the problem, so the American people can understand what the realities are.
SOURCE http://abcnews.go.com/WN/white-house-stimulus-website-riddled-errors/story?id=9110298
Typical liberal ploy---when in hot water, milk the "tolerance and compassion" angle.
BIGTIME POLITICAL FALLOUT The danger for the Obamas is that continually seeing Mrs O gallivanting around posh Marbella may feed perceptions they are out of touch with struggling American families. "This in and of itself doesn't hurt Pres Obama, but it plants a seed in voters' minds ... that 'they're not like me,' " said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster.
UK TELEGRAPH REPORT Some estimated the cost to the American taxpayer of Mrs O's entourage and her trip at $375,000. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, declined to comment on Mrs Obama's holiday, saying "she is a private citizen and is the mother of a daughter on a private trip."
Secret Service and the multiple WH govt employees Mrs O brought on the trip ("supposedly for her friend") occupied about 60 rooms in the posh five-star Villa Padierna hotel,and will be paid for by taxpayers. A 15-vehicle convoy shuttled Her Highness' entourage around.
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The opulence of the The five-star Villa Padierna in Marbella, Spain has drawn scrutiny. The Hotel Villa Padierna, a Ritz-Carlton resort in the mountains outside Marbella has two golf courses, a posh spa with Turkish baths, views of the Mediterranean Sea and a high-end restaurant specializing in avant-garde fare. Room rates start at $400 and rise to $6,500 for a two-bedroom villa with a private pool and 24-hour butler service.