From today's Denver Post
The federal government reported Friday that Colorado created or saved 8,094 jobs through grants, loans and contracts funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.Problem is, the figure is wrong, according to an analysis of recovery.gov data by The Denver Post.
For example,
Although a Colorado Springs Head Start program reported it had created or preserved 269 jobs, the real number was three, according to an interview with a program manager.
But do not worry. Those figures on the cost of nationalized health care are sure to be accurate.
Furthermore,
. . . figures for stimulus awards in Colorado, as with an earlier data release, are inconsistent, inaccurate or incomplete so far.
But do not worry. The data in your medical records under nationalized health care will be fine.
"You've got compliance issues and you have data-quality issues," said Michael Balsam, an executive with Onvia, a Seattle company tracking stimulus spending.
But do not worry. These issues of basic competence will not affect nationalized health care.
None of this matters, however, because there is an upside!
Some economists and researchers said the government deserves credit for passing the stimulus package, no matter what numbers eventually are documented."We're down 100,000 jobs compared to a year ago, so if this effort has done anything to save some jobs, to keep some people working, that's good, that's the upside," said Gary Horvath, marketing analyst at the Colorado Leeds School of Business.
Mr. Horvath now carries the banner for the fine academic tradition of the University of Colorado most recently carried by Ward Churchill.
Mr. Horvath uses the "if it saves just one person, it's all worth it" logic. This line of thought results in the conclusion, reached here by Horvath, is that no matter the cost, if ANY good arises, then it was money well spent.
So, when the Pentagon buys a $5 hammer for $1000, there is an upside. The Pentagon got its hammer.
And we get nailed.
1 comments:
That reminds me of something else about the stimulus. There hasn't been a lot of talk about electronic medical records lately. But, IIRC, the stimulus involved spending something like $38 billion on projects to do this.
Estimated savings ---> $17 billion.
Some research would be warranted on this one to make sure my memory isn't failing me. But it's another excellent example of putting those "federal monies" to "good use".
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