Updates in red font.

After ten months of office, President Obama’s presidency can be summed up in one word –Mistake!

In the early days of his term, Obama and his top advisers predicted that the passage of the $787 billion dollar stimulus package “would boost the economy and keep the unemployment rate below 8%.”  However, eight months after the President signed the massive stimulus bill, unemployment has skyrocketed to 9.8 percent, a 26-year high.  As a result, President Obama conceded that his estimations were wrong, and that he now expects unemployment to rise above 10%.  Vice President Joe Biden admitted to the mistake by saying, “the truth is, we and everyone misread the economy”.  Not everyone Joe!

Obama also had to change his estimates on the 2010 deficit.  While the 2008 deficit under the Bush administration toppled $459 billion, Obama’s initial estimate for the 2010 budget claimed to be $1.26 trillion.  Again, the Obama administration was wrong.  In August, President Obama had to adjust his claim as the CBO estimated to $1.6 trillion dollars for 2009 and $1.5 trillion for 2010, three times higher than the last year of the Bush administration.  The actual amount is nearly $1.5 trillion.

Obama continues to claim that he “inherited” the country’s dire economic situation.

As far as the 10 year deficit is concerned, Obama made another mistake by seriously miscalculating that too.  For months, President Obama continuously claimed that the 10-year deficit would not exceed $7 trillion dollars.  However, a report concealed by the White House since July, was finally released near the end of August which projects the 10-year deficit to top $9 trillion dollars.  Another mistake by the Obama administration to the tune of $2 trillion dollars.

Obama’s stimulus data tracker, recovery.gov, made a number of mistakes when it released its reports on October 15, 2009.  According to senior federal fiscal policy analyst, Craig Jennings, the “data is rife with mistakes.”  In an administration that has made an unprecedented amount of economic mistakes, publicly reporting inaccurate information is not only common, it is expected:

According to the Recovery Board, a non-profit, government-funded organization that operates stimulus data tracker recovery.gov, the government expected mistakes and is reviewing reports of them.

Some of the mistakes reported included:

…an error that made it look like a French vaccine maker received the largest stimulus contract, $1.4 billion, when in fact it has gotten an award one-100th the size…There were 5,232 federal contracts reported Thursday, but 41,944 grants and loans will be reported on Oct. 30…

On February 13, 2009, the White House made a HUGH mistake when it released a statement that claimed the stimulus would “create or save” over 3.5 million jobs over the period of two years.  That’s an average of 145,833 jobs per month.  The first direct stimulus report show only 30,083 jobs have been created or saved since the stimulus passed, eight months ago.  That’s an average of 3,760 jobs “created or saved” per month, a far cry for the promise of 145,833 average jobs “created or saved” per month. 

At this rate, the stimulus plan is on pace to “create or save” a dismal 60,160 jobs over the two year period, or 1.72% of the amount promised.

[UPDATE] On October 29, the AP reported that the Obama administration made a mistake when it “overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports”.  The Obama administrations report cited that the $787 billion stimulus program saved or created more than 30,000 jobs, a number that was grossly overstated:

The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.

This just adds to the growing list of mistakes attributed to the way President Obama is handling the economy, and a good indication of how he will continue to govern.

On Nov. 3rd, the AP reported that the Obama administration continues to make mistakes, with regard to the number of reported jobs “created or saved” by the stimulus package.  For example, the report made a mistake when it claimed that Southwest Georgia Community Action Council saved 935 jobs, yet it only employs 508 people.

In another federal office, two thirds of the jobs that were claimed as being “saved”, were actually based on “pay raises”.  HHS spokesman Luis Rosero defends the mistake by saying ”If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job.”

“It’s a glitch in the system,” said Ben Allen, the research director at the National Head Start Association… a cost-of-living adjustment “may not be viewed traditionally as a job saved, but one could interpret it that, by providing COLA, you’re retaining staff.”

[Update 11-17-08]  On Nov. 16, ABC News reported that the White House reported jobs in a district of Arizona that does not exist:

In Arizona’s 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that’s what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.  There’s one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.

Sr. Economic writer for the Wall Street Journal, Steve Moore, added that the Arizona mistake is not an isolated incident.  The White House also made a mistake reporting that jobs were “saved or created” in a phantom district in Ohio and mistakenly reported that jobs were “saved or created” by Obama’s stimulus package in a 42^nd congressional district in Connecticut that didn’t receive any stimulus money.  In addition, the report also counted jobs “saved or created” in Nebraska that were for people who were paid to count the number of jobs (there were only five reported) that were “saved or created”.

Is this deception, incompetence or both?

So when the president predicts that his health care plan will not increase the deficit and the cost will be paid for by eliminating fraud and waste, should we rely on his calculations?  Remember, the President claims that his health care plan will have less than a $900 billion price tag, so we leave the final words for thought with his own top adviser, Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, as written in the Feb. 27, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA):

“Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality of care are merely ‘lipstick’ cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change.”

Articles of interest:

Stimulus Watch:  Salary raise counted as saved job

No blunder left behind

Stimulus efficiency success story of the day

New Front of Obamacare:  The young

Jobs “saved or created” from $787 billion Porkulus: 30,083

Oh my:  Big labor versus the white house?

COMING: THE ECONOMIC “W” (Dick Morris – well worth the read)

Obama tells media they should stop covering opposition

Carlson:  When did the hopemeister turn bitter?

Did Obama provide a reset on health care with speech?

AP fact-checks Obama speech?

Obama better this time around?

Obama “efficiency” in action?

Obamacare gives union leaders government power in health care bill?

Obama’s speech:  Did it help him?

Banks to bail out the regulator?

On stimulus jobs reporting, a big ‘Oops’

Updated version of original post “Does Obama even understand the fundamentals of economics?