Stimulus Spending Overstated by Obama Officials

[snowdays]

When WH officials give misleading data--it does not signal change--just same ol, same ol.


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/stimulus-spending-overstated-by-obama-officials/


May 28, 2009, 6:47 pm
Stimulus Spending Overstated by Obama Officials

By Michael Cooper

When the Obama administration issued its first quarterly report on the $787 billion stimulus package earlier this month, prompting questions about the rate of stimulus spending, it overstated how much money had been actually been spent by roughly a third.

The report said that “as of May 5, $28.5 billion had already been outlaid.’’ That figure included $11.5 billion in payments the Labor Department reported making to the unemployment trust fund. The Labor Department has now revised its figure, reporting that it has only actually paid $1.1 billion to the unemployment trust fund.

The adjustment appeared on the government’s stimulus Web site, http://www.recovery.gov, in the form of a May 21 footnote that said “Effective May 21, a Department of Labor accounting adjustment was made to reflect an $8.9 billion dollar reduction from the previously reported outlays (i.e.: paid out).” The $10.4 billion over-reported payment to the trust fund was partly offset by the department’s payments to other programs.

That would mean that the government had only actually spent between $18.1 billion and $19.6 billion of stimulus money when the quarterly report was issued...................