Here we go again: Fantasy Time in Obama Job-Creation Land.
The White House yesterday sent Vice President Joe Biden and Council of Economic Advisers head Christina Romer to tout the sudden, wonderful, magical appearance of some 3.5 million jobs under President Obama through the end of this year.
Indeed, they say between 2.5 million and 3.6 million positions already have been “created or saved” — all as a result of Team Obama’s trillion-dollar stimulus.
Golly! Time to celebrate? Not quite.
The “estimate” is up 20 percent from just last quarter. And — by sheer coincidence, of course — President Obama’s poll ratings are . . . down.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll finds 54 percent of Americans disapproving of Obama’s leadership on economic issues. A CBS survey shows barely four in 10 back his handling of the economy.
The worse the ratings, it seems, the more jobs his folks claim to have created.
Let’s be frank: Even Biden, Romer & Co. know their new numbers are fuzzy.
“There’s obviously a lot of uncertainty about any jobs estimate,” Romer acknowledged.
No kidding — especially from this administration.
Last year, when they touted their jobs figures, they wound up backtracking — after it turned out that hundreds of jobs were included from congressional districts that didn’t even exist.
Biden later admitted the data were flawed, noting that “further updates and corrections are going to be needed.”
Then he and Obama bragged about new job numbers for May — some 430,000 of them.
Except that 411,000 were temporary, part-time positions created by the Census Bureau.
By now, of course, most Americans know that estimating the number of jobs that result from federal spending is near impossible. “Experts” can pick any number they like — who can disprove it?
But Americans also know that unemployment has hovered around 10 percent for much of Obama’s term.
Federal spending — and deficits — have swelled, while taxes are set to soar.
“The fastest-growing parts of this Democrat economy aren’t jobs [but] the crushing burden of the national debt and the size of the federal government,” said Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.
That’s a less wonderful view, of course.
But it does have the benefit of being reality-based.
Unlike the Obama-Biden job figures.