The New York Times is also guilty of this, but none of the media appears to be asking the very straightforward question: how can you work out how many jobs you've saved? William McGurn has a cracking piece on this very subject:US President Barack Obama has said his $787bn stimulus package will deliver more than 600,000 jobs this summer.
The pledge comes as an increase in federal spending for key stimulus components, like hiring new teachers, is about to begin.
"We have a long way to go on our road to recovery but we are going the right way," Mr Obama said.
He has said that 150,000 jobs have been saved by his plan, a claim derided by critics of the stimulus.
Now had this been Bush, I'm sure the BBC would have gone through these figures with a fine toothcomb.Mr. Obama's comments yesterday are a perfect illustration of just such a claim. In the months since Congress approved the stimulus, our economy has lost nearly 1.6 million jobs and unemployment has hit 9.4%. Invoke the magic words, however, and -- presto! -- you have the president claiming he has "saved or created" 150,000 jobs. It all makes for a much nicer spin, and helps you forget this is the same team that only a few months ago promised us that passing the stimulus would prevent unemployment from rising over 8%.
It's not only former Bush staffers such as Messrs. Fratto and Mankiw who have noted the political convenience here. During a March hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Max Baucus challenged Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the formula.
"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong," said the Montana Democrat. "If the economy loses two million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs. You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."
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