CBO: Jobs “saved or created” by stimulus cost $228,055 each
I’m increasingly leery of the worth of the information put out by the CBO simply because in many cases it seems to fit the definition of GIGO. This would be one of those instances. CBO now claims that the $821 billion “stimulus” money saved or create “between 1.4 million and 3.5 million” jobs.
Really? Can’t narrow it down any closer than that? Well no, because:
This estimate seeks to state the net impact the stimulus had on the number of people employed in the United States as a result of the stimulus, taking into account not only the new jobs believed to be created and the existing jobs believed to be killed by the stimulus, but also the existing jobs that were saved that otherwise would have been lost.
It is all about estimates based on some sort of criteria that isn’t clear to anyone apparently. And it certainly isn’t centered on hard data – not with a range like that.
Here’s how I look at it. The administration said that if we didn’t pass the stimulus, the unemployment rate would hit 8%. If we did, it promised that the unemployment rate would stay below 8%. The stimulus was passed, the money supposedly spent and the unemployment rate went to 10%.
That, in my way of thinking, is stimulus FAIL.
Now they want to argue about how it could have been worse? That it was prudent to spend at least $228,055 per job they believe (because they’re obviously not sure) they may have created or saved?
Yeah, I’m sticking with “stimulus FAIL” and a total waste of borrowed money.
~McQ