According to the Obama administrations latest count the Presidents economic stimulus package has created 45 jobs in Texas 58th congressional district and 30 jobs in the states 91st district.
The White Houses
recovery.gov web site declares that Texas 52nd district received exactly $8937289 in stimulus funds while the 68th district has had precisely $310963 funneled into it.
Trouble is none of these congressional districts exist.
Click on this logo to check out the stimulus numbers--warts and all.
In its latest computer glitch the Obama administrations much-ballyhooed accounting system for the $1.2 trillion stimulus law detailed government spending in 39 congressional districts in Texas -- a state that in reality has 32 congressional districts. More than $14 million in mystery money is attributed to seven phantom congressional districts including the mysterious and fictional District 00.
Nationally the
recovery.gov site has mistakenly attributed $6.4 billion in stimulus spending to 440 non-existent districts in all 50 states the District of Columbia and even four American territories according to an analysis by the nonpartisan government oversight group
watchdog.org.
Republican critics of the stimulus package are having a field day with the administrations latest self-inflicted political wound.
Since passage of the stimulus bill over three million of our fellow countrymen lost their jobs and our nation suffers from the highest unemployment rate in a quarter of a century jabbed Rep. Jeb Hensarling R-Dallas. Now we discover that much of the money cannot be properly accounted for ... and in many cases (are) complete fabrications.
The administration attributes the mistakes to accounting errors committed by recipients of stimulus grants loans and contracts.
The problem appears to be with recipients who either were unsure of or confused over their congressional district or recipients who made an honest human error in manually entering the data for their reports said Cheryl Arvidson a spokeswoman for the White House recovery board.
Arvidson noted that the congressional district snafu applies only to the district-by-district accounting system and does not mean there is money being sent into a black hole.
Last month the first set of congressional district numbers released by the White House was rife with errors according to a Houston Chronicle review of the recovery.gov numbers. Money for projects across Texas was credited to a small number of lawmakers whose districts included Austin where state agencies receiving the federal cash were located. Administration officials promised to release updated reports that would correct the flaws.
They indeed fixed that problem -- but created a new one.
These White House stimulus claims are past embarrassing said Rep. Kevin Brady R-The Woodlands. They are approaching the bizarre.
