More Stimulus Arithmetic
In preparation for an op ed, I spent a half hour Saturday morning playing with the interactive map at the most transparent administration in history’s Recovery.org website. As of Halloween, here are some of the regional breakdowns in terms of stimulus money awarded, received, and jobs saved (according to the recipients). Of course these figures of jobs saved are themselves bogus, but even on their own terms:
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D.C……..$2.8b…..$209m……2,274
Idaho……$1.2b…..$246m……2,103
Texas……$10.7b….$1.8b……19,572
If you use trusty division, you find that the District of Columbia has “created or saved” jobs at a cost of $1.2 million per job (using the Awarded figure) or $92k using the Received figure.
Idaho takes the cake (at least of the states I checked) on the Received end, where each job created or saved cost $117k of stimulus awards actually received.
