Fantasy land stimulus

November 25, 2009 4:23 am

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JOBS are big news these days with the national jobless rate above 10 percent. One of the purposes of the $787 billion stimulus bill passed earlier this year was to fund "shovel-ready" projects and stimulate growth, easing unemployment. How is it working? Hard to say, but it seems like a lot of the jobs reported by the White House as created or saved are mythical.

For example, according to recovery .gov, 30 jobs have been saved or created by the stimulus in Arizona's 15th District. The only problem is, Arizona has only eight districts.

But who's counting? Residents of Washington, D.C., may be surprised to find their "state" has 99 congressional districts. And stimulus trackers have added eight new congressional districts to West Virginia.

In all, recovery.gov reports more than $6.4 billion given to 440 chimerical districts all over the United States and its territories. Seems like the White House should have used stimulus money to create one job, at least: bean counter.