Obama's Job Saved Claim Flat Out Bullcrap

Tony Fratto, former White House Spokesman for President Bush, on CNBC has used a nice word -- "deception" -- to say that President Barack Obama is lying about his claims that his "stimulus" efforts saved any American jobs.

Not only does Fratto destroy the administration's claims to have saved jobs, but he rightfully points out that the Obama enamored media is letting Obama get away with the lie.

Fratto calls the jobs-saved rhetoric a "breathtaking deception" and is stunned at the "gullibility of the Washington press corps" for reporting Obama's claims with a straight face and a complete lack of curiosity.

Fratto says:

Here's an important note to my friends in the news media: the White House has absolutely no earthly clue how many job losses have been prevented because of the stimulus bill. None. Not Christina Romer. Not Jared Bernstein. Not Austen Goolsbee.

Each of these distinguished economists would have failed Statistics 101 for making such a laughable claim. But we see them now repeating these assertions to reporters who have seemingly abandoned all skepticism.

[. . .]

You only need to know this: the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) - thousands of the most professional and rigorous counters and analyzers of labor data in the history of mankind - makes TWO revisions of employment data for their ESTIMATE of the PREVIOUS month! And even then the reports are mere estimates - an annual benchmark survey is required to reset the nation's payroll baseline.

That is, the best employment statisticians the world has ever known, people whose lives are dedicated to employment data, conducting labor surveys and research, constantly refining their complex models, have a difficult time telling you how many jobs were created in the PAST!

[. . .]

If I -- or even my predecessors in the Clinton Administration -- had tried to pull off this ridiculous gimmick we would have been run out of town. I don't even believe it's possible to look back and accurately measure the "job-saving" impact of Bush or Clinton Administration policies, let alone to measure in real time, or project into the future.

On Friday the BLS will release its estimate of May job losses. They will also report their revisions for March and April. And White House officials will once again gear up the spin machine on how many jobs have been "saved."

A self-respecting press corps would vigorously question the White House on their claims. We'll see if we have one.