OMB's Fuzzy Math

OMB's Fuzzy Math

The Office of Management and Budget has calculated jobs that are “saved or created” by the Recovery Act through non-existent congressional districts, phantom ZIP codes, and questionable accounting practices. To remedy these problems (and in a perfectly-timed response to bad press) the OMB has decided to re-calculate “saved or created” jobs to include those that exist independent of any Recovery Act money in the first place.

In other words, the OMB has made their accounting on a $787 billion expenditure of taxpayer money completely meaningless.

OMB director Peter Orzag says the new...