“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Republican bailout has done its job. Executives, and other financial mongrels and others are doing well again, but in yet another clear proof that “trickle down” economic theory is wrong, millions of unemployed Americans lives are getting worse, not better. How many of unemployed are there now? 20 million? 30 million? Nobody knows for sure, since many of them have given up finding a job or have exhausted their unemployment benefits. It is time to start the democratic bailout plan, which aims to help Americans get back to work. So far, Obama has been no socialist, but a democrat in name only on economic issues.

STIMULUS WATCH: Stimulus jobs overstated by 1,000s
By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and MATT APUZZO – Associated Press Writers

An early progress report on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports.

The government’s first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, or one in six, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts.

The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.

For example:
- A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.

- A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending.

- A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees.

There’s no evidence the White House sought to inflate job numbers in the report. But administration officials seized on the 30,000 figure as evidence that the stimulus program was on its way toward fulfilling the president’s promise of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.

You can read the entire article at BradentonHerald.com