2M Jobs Created....or Saved

We've kicked this one around quite a bit here on the CW--you remember, the vapidity of the Obama Administration's tracking of "saved" jobs as a way of bolstering support of its feckless "stimulus" package. The latest figure they are putting out is 2M jobs created or "saved". If you read the article, you get a hint of the growing dissatisfaction with the use of the term "saved", and its often flexible interpretation. That said, at some point the media has a duty to stop reporting the "saved" jobs and only report on the "created" jobs--a figure more widely accepted.

What's the problem with saved jobs, you may ask? Doesn't it make sense to count the 200 teacher jobs saved in Podunkville as a result of stimulus money? No. It doesn't. Because what are being counted there are jobs that might be lost--and might also NOT be lost.

Here's the scenario. Podunkville has a budget deficit--and it looks around at what needs to get cut. Teachers and first responders are always a good target--especially when there's "stimulus" money to be had. Poor folks are gonna get FIRED if we don't get some cash from Uncle Sugar. Problem with this is that if Uncle Sugar rolled in and said no--the local officials would have to face their own constituencies locally---who in some cases wouldn't accept this response to fiscal crisis. There would be a locally driven impetus to roll up sleeves and look for other cuts. Sometimes, jobs could be "saved", and sometimes they couldn't. But counting the ones that would be saved same as ones that wouldn't is just zany, and it is no way to track the success of a $787B program.