Polls Show Americans Not Buying It Dubious Jobs Numbers From White House

The White House released a new report today claiming “[t]he $787 billion economic stimulus package has created or saved between 1.7 million and 2 million jobs,” as The Washington Post described it. Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, said “The most important bottom line is to say that close to 2 million jobs have been created or saved by the close of 2009, a truly stunning . . . effect of the act.” According to the AP, Romer even told reporters on a conference call, the stimulus “has done exactly what we have anticipated it would do.”

But this is the same economic team that assured Americans that the stimulus would help the economy avoid double-digit unemployment. Not only that, Romer predicted that unemployment would peak at 8%. Yet unemployment in December was 10%.

Today’s report also cites a number the administration released last fall claiming the stimulus had “saved or created” around 640,000 jobs. But in October, both the AP and CBS News looked into the report and found it not very accurate. The AP wrote at the time, “An early progress report on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan overstate[d] by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program.”

And just this week the AP put out another study of stimulus spending, finding that “[a] federal spending surge of more than $20 billion for roads and bridges in President Barack Obama’s first stimulus has had no effect on local unemployment rates . . . .” The Las Vegas Review-Journal editors have heard enough, and pointed to the AP report in blasting the administration for the stimulus. The Review-Journal explains, “Here in Nevada, unemployment surged from 10.1 percent last February, when the stimulus bill passed, to a record 13.3 percent in August, even as $201 million in federal road funding began streaming into the state. Meantime, the number of construction jobs in Nevada continued to drop, from 90,000 last February to 82,500 in November . . . .”

Americans just aren’t buying the Obama administration’s spin on the stimulus and the economy. A new Quinnipiac poll finds only 41% approve and 54% disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy (and 58% disapprove on health care). And a new poll from Gallup finds similarly that only 40% approve and 56% disapprove of his handling of the economy. Gallup notes, “[Obama’s] current 40% approval rating on the economy and 37% rating on health care are the lowest of his presidency to date.” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute observes, “These ratings on the economy and health care probably are why more voters say they don’t share Obama’s views on the issues they care about.”

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