Stimulus “Created Or Saved” Jobs In Places That Don’t Exist

That’s right. The government stimulus-tracking website recovery.gov is touting jobs “saved or created” in congressional districts that do not exist. Worse? Millions of dollars reportedly went to these phantom places. Where’s the money?

Recovery.gov says that Arizona’s 15th congressional district created 30 jobs with $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts. In Oklahoma $19 million in spending created only 15 jobs in yet more congressional districts that don’t exist.

In Iowa, it shows $10.6 million spent and 39 jobs created in nonexistent districts. In Connecticut’s 42nd district (which also does not exist), the Web site claims 25 jobs created with zero stimulus dollars.

U.S. territories also get in on the action: $68.3 million spent and 72.2 million spent in the 1st congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands. $8.4 million spent and 40.3 jobs created in the 99th congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the Northern Mariana Islands, there was $1.5 million spent and .3 jobs created in the 69th district, and $35 million for 142 jobs in the 99th district. (How do you create a fractional job?!)

Ed Pound, Communications Director for the recovery Board has this defense:

“We report what the recipients submit to us.”

Ed blames the problem on “human error”. Why isn’t the onus on the oversight board to track where the money has gone? IS recovery.gov just a list of what the states report, and not a true tracking by the feds? Are they just fudging the numbers??