I think most people would agree that facts are important. As the saying goes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts.

This morning, three White House advisors appeared on three different morning shows and touted three different figures on how many jobs were created and, eh "saved." 

Axelrod, on CNN’s State of the Union: “But understand that, in this recession that began at the beginning of 2007, we've lost 7 million jobs. Now, the Recovery Act the president passed has created more than — or saved more than 2 million jobs. But against 7 million, you know, that — that is — it is cold comfort to those who still are looking.”

Jarrett, on NBC’s Meet the Press: “The Recovery Act saved thousands and thousands of jobs. There are school teachers and firemen and— and— teachers all across our country, policemen, who have jobs today because of that recovery act. We're investing in infrastructure. We're investing in public education so that our kids can compete going forth into the next— generation.”

Gibbs, on “Fox News Sunday”: “Well, Chris, let's take for instance the example you just used of the stimulus package. We had four quarters of economic regression in terms of growth, right? Just last quarter, we finally saw the first positive economic job growth in more than a year. Largely as a result of the recovery plan that's put money back into our economy, that saved or created 1.5 million jobs.”

Politics is getting in the way of reality. Of course the administration would like to show progress on the jobs front but that simply isn't possible. Since Barack Obama has become president, the U.S. economy has shed nearly 5 million jobs. The administration fabricated a statistic called "jobs created or saved" because they knew the recession would continue well into Obama's first term and they needed a way to spin the jobs numbers in a positive light.

In other words, they are making up their own facts. That's why nobody in the administration knows exactly how many jobs were "created or saved." The real answer is none.

Read more at The Politico.

According to recovery.gov, it cost taxpayers $246,436 for each job created or "saved" under the Obama "Porkulus" plan.

From Ed Yardeni (subscription required) via James Pethokoukis at Reuters

The Obama Administration is touting that their stimulus program has saved or created 640,329 jobs since it was enacted back in February through the end of October. This number is updated and posted on the Administration’s recovery.gov web site. That amounts to $246,436 per job based on the $157.8bn that has been awarded so far! Total compensation earned by the average payroll employee during October, on an annualized basis, was $59,867. If the government had simply used the funds awarded so far to pay for a year's worth of labor, that would have paid for 2.6mn jobs!

Mint.com explains why the unemployment rate is really 17.2% and not the 10% that the government claims it is.

via youtube.com

President Barack Obama's job approval rating is at a crossroads of sorts. Do you believe his approval numbers will improve any time soon? I don't.

His health care proposal is very unpopular as his is cap-and-trade plan, the economy is still struggling and employers continue to shed jobs each month despite the $800 billion stimulus package that was approved earlier this year. Consumer confidence is very low and the American people are angry. To top it all off, his decision to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan has angered many of his core supporters.

It's getting ugly out there. Perhaps stories like this one should be called "Revenge of the Porkulus."

From the local Putnam County (NY) Courier...

In fact, the number of jobs that should appear on the report is not 60, but just 1.54, and those one and a half jobs are actually in New Paris, Indiana. Whether by bureaucratic error, or deliberate maneuvering, the administration has inflated claims of job creation based on Putnam County stimulus spending. Other stimulus-funded projects in Putnam County are riddled with reporting errors and inaccuracies.

Recovery.gov reports that Putnam County has received $1,092,595 of stimulus money for projects, $319,000 of which was dedicated to purchasing five new Paratransit vans, manufactured by Turtletop Busses in Indiana. Lynch told the Courier that the inaccurate number of 60 jobs created by the purchase of vans “counted both the second and third fiscal quarters, when it was only supposed to count the third quarter.” Putnam County officials tried to correct the number before the third quarter report was issued, but were “frozen out of the system” according to Lynch.

Read more at the Putnam County Courier website.