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)
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/11/why-was-white-house-website-riddled-with-errors.html
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
ABC NEWS' JONATHAN KARL, Chief Congressional Correspondent, REPORTS, Nov. 17, 2009
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
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$6.4 Billion Stimulus Goes to Phantom Districts
watchdog.org | November, 2009 | staff
FR Posted August 09, 2010 by bronxville
...Just how big is the stimulus package? Well for one, it has doubled the size of the House of Representatives, according to recovery.gov, which says that funds were distributed to 440 congressional districts that do not exist.
According to data retrieved from recovery.gov, nearly $6.4 billion was used to “create or save” just under 30,000 jobs in these phantom congressional districts–almost $225,000 per job. The web site operates on an $84 million budget and is tasked with monitoring the distribution of the $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress–which, for the record, counts 435 members–in early 2009...
SOURCE http://watchdog.org/1530/6-4-billion-stimulus-goes-to-phantom-districts/
CASE IN POINT Obama sent $17.5 billion stim to the state of NJ---that promptly disappeared. Then-Gov Crozine was a Wall Street operator---as head of G/S.
Wall Street knows how to make money disappear faster than a cream puff at a Weight Watcher weigh-in.
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GREAT CATCH!!!!!
I’ve zapped this to Drudge and hope he’ll post it!
bttt
Did you send it to Rush, Mark, Sean?
It went for above budget costs of running the operation. Per diem, travel expenses, overtime/night/Sunday premium pay, undercover costs, etc.
That being said, even before it came to light that ATF was dumping guns on the streets, their inspector general had already started investigating the use of these funds. I think one of the big offices spent $1.5 million in these funds and netted 6 arrests and 12 guns total. A complete waste of money.
Full auto ping
Here is the thread.
Looks like Obama will need a new VP. Joe Biden was the one who was going to be the stimulus sheriff. You remember- “nobody messes around with Joe!” It makes sense to have him as the fall-guy as no one really believed the bumbling incompetent was going to do anything to keep track of the stimulus.
It is and it does. FYI, I've forwarded itb to a couple of people in the news and talk radio biz. I doubt you'll get credit for it, but if they go with it, you deserve both their and our thanks.
Bump - great work - thank you!
It is very significant that the Democrat authors in the House and Senate inserted words to authorize and fund the criminal actions of the Administration and DOJ.
Is there a way to find the exact line in the bill to look at where this appropriation is mentioned- specifically the statement you mention. I’m not having much luck using their search feature - Thanks
Good old non read stimulus.
you have great information there. But your conclusion is faulty.
>What this tells me is that several congressmen also had knowledge of what Gunrunner was going to entail. This isn’t just the ATF and DOJ. This is all levels and areas of government. Even members of the House and Senate knew what Project Gunrunner was.<
They thought it was intended to arrest STRAW buyers, not let the guns walk.
Levin just gave FR (you) props and mentioned this.
Why isn’t this in breaking news?
Great catch mate!!