Johnson insists stimulus “not worth it”
Where is the accountability?
November
18, 2009
Citing
“it’s just not worth it,” U.S. Congressman Sam
Johnson (3rd Dist.-Texas) took aim at the so-called stimulus created
to keep unemployment below 8% that has come under intense fire
for gross inaccuracies as reported on the Administration’s
own $18 million website created to track the stimulus. Since the
$800 billion so-called stimulus passed, unemployment has spiked
to 10.2%, with that number estimated to rise even higher.
Seemingly
every day since the White House unveiled its stimulus jobs report,
stories of exceptionally rosy jobs numbers have piled up. Last
week, the Associated Press reported that the White House's original
claims after the first round of recipient reports were over exaggerated
by thousands of jobs.
More
recently, ABC News ran a story probing bogus job claims reported
on the $18 million website created by the White House to track
the $800 billion in stimulus spending, www.recovery.gov. For example,
the costly site confirmed that nonexistent congressional districts
in Arizona received millions of taxpayer dollars.
“It’s
just not worth it. I’m deeply concerned that the government
keeps writing checks that our children and grandchildren can not
cash. Furthermore, where is the accountability? Why do the facts
keep shifting and why did the White House spend $18 million on
a website,” wondered Johnson.
In
a related matter, White House's budget chief Peter Orszag recently
announced that Medicare and Medicaid improperly paid out $54.2
billion in fiscal 2009, with the rate of Medicare fee-for-service
errors more than doubling over the previous year. “The American
public is growing weary of daily reports on how their government
is wasting their hard-earned tax dollars. They have a right to
know why their money is going nowhere fast,” concluded Johnson.
To
spotlight the problematic stimulus numbers coming out of the Administration,
Johnson posted the ABC News clip citing egregious errors on Recovery.gov
on his blog. To watch “Stimulus Site Gets Scorched by ABC
Nightly News, Job Creation Data Very Much in Doubt,” go
to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Fg3s33Lug.
To read Johnson’s blog, go to www.SamJohnson.house.gov.
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