New Sales Pitch

After criticism of its promotion of efforts to supposedly stimulate (read: wastefully spend money the government doesn’t have) the economy (noted previously on this blog), the Obama adminstration is now tweaking its sales pitch. Instead of dubiously referring to jobs “saved or created,” it will now call them jobs “funded.” One example of the media picking up this new terminology is here.

The new name is meant to convey the following:

… any “stimulus” money used to cover payroll will be included in the jobs program, including pay raises for existing employees and pay for people who were never in jeopardy of losing their positions.

Peter Orszag, the White House’s director for the Office of Management and Budget released a memo last month detailing the change. Part of it suggested the following:

In addition, recipients will no longer be required to make a subjective judgment on whether jobs were created or retained as a result of the Recovery Act. Instead, recipients will more easily and objectively report on jobs funded with Recovery Act dollars. This update aligns with GAO’s recommendation to “[make] more explicit that ‘jobs created or retained’ are to be reported as hours worked and paid for with Recovery Act funds.”

In other words, jobs aren’t necessarily being created or saved.  In the end it means a new name with the same disappointing results.