Cable news networks help spread Republicans’ ‘highly misleading’ stimulus math.
Cable news networks help spread Republicans’ ‘highly misleading’ stimulus math.
Back in January, the Republicans claimed that the economic stimulus package would cost $275,000 for every job created, which they calculated by taking the entire cost of the stimulus package and dividing it by the number of jobs created in just one year. At the time, Paul Krugman called the Republicans’ number a “bogus talking point.” With the White House’s announcement last week that the stimulus package has created 640,000 to 1 million jobs, the GOP is employing fuzzy math once again. Don Stewart, spokesman for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), told reporters on Friday to “get out your calculators” and divide the spending by the jobs, producing a figure of $230,769 per job. Media outlets Fox News, CNN, and CNBC have all repeated some variation of the number (using slightly different estimates) in the last few days. Watch a compilation:
The AP’s Calvin Woodward was not fooled, and today released a piece telling readers to “beware the math” coming from the Republicans and calling it “satisfyingly simple but highly misleading”:
First, the naysayers’ calculations ignore the value of the work produced. Any cost-per-job figure pays not just for the worker, but for material, supplies and that worker’s output — a portion of a road paved, patients treated in a health clinic, goods shipped from a factory floor, railroad tracks laid. Second, critics are counting the total cost of contracts that will fuel work for months or years and dividing that by the number of jobs produced only to date.
As Woodward wrote, “dividing apples by oranges won’t settle” whether or not the stimulus package has been a success.
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Well yeah, these math wizards think +20 million viewers in one week arent the same -3 million every day.
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:59 pmRepublicans and their backers in the MSM have been “fuzzy” in regards to math/numbers , for years ; Ronnie Reagan and Bush the younger are 2 of the most glaring examples …….
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:01 pmRepublican math is like diet, caffine-free cola. All the flavor, and all the fizz, but after drinking it, all you’ve really done is added more CO2 to the atmosphere. (burp)
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:02 pmNeo-con mathematics…
Figures lie, and liars figure.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:03 pmA quote from a friend:
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:06 pm
It is ridiculous to even attempt to attempt to calculate a “cost” be job when dealing with any stimulus money that has been spent on infrastructure.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:06 pmHow do you take in account the money spent on material used on the projects, money spent on design and other costs not spent directly on labor?
Then there is the long term benefits of the finished product. In the case of a bridge or road, that piece of infrastructure may be used for fifty years, how do you take that into account?
What do you expect? These are the same brilliant minds who believed Tax Cuts + Massive Government Spending = Balanced Budget!
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:06 pmMethane divided
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:07 pmBy conservative brain cells
Still a lot of gas
Typical librul media repeating Republican talking points without checking the numbers
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:08 pmand they wonder why the country fell on its azz went they were in power.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:09 pmmakes you wonder about conservatism in general as they can not even use 6 grade math how in the hell they going to be able to figure out budgets.
good thing americans don’t do math.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:11 pmcorrection @6
calculate a “cost” per job
pimf
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:12 pmAnd the Republican plan for the economy is . . .
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:12 pmOh, that’s right, the Republican plan for the economy is what Obama is trying to fix.
I can’t even come up with something snarky to say about this. At some point if you can’t even agree on simple math, there’s nothing more to discuss.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:13 pmRepublican math…as useless as Republicans themselves.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:13 pmNeo-con meth: Cooked up.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:16 pmI wonder if this is the same kind of Republican math used when predicting the Iraq war would somehow magically pay for itself.
“The likely economic effects [of a war in Iraq] would be relatively small…. Under every plausible scenario, the negative effect will be quite small relative to the economic benefits.”
Lawrence Lindsey
White House economic adviser
September 16, 2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/navasky_cerf
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:16 pmMc@2, I correct MSM is Big Business. And Big Business loves the Repugs. Just watch CNN. Jon Stewart destroyed them.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:20 pmthe GOP is employing fuzzy math once again. Don Stewart, spokesman for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), told reporters on Friday to “get out your calculators”
Then he asked sheepish now can some one please show Mitch how to turn it on and use one.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:21 pm7. Ennui Divine,
May I suggest your equation only works for tax cuts directed to the rich ?
Like the old joke
1 + 1 = 3, but only for large values of 1
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 pmRepublican math is equivalent to (and about as believable and accurate) as GOP honesty and straight-talk …………………..
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 pmShit, that means the MTA here in NY has been ripping me off. For the rest of the eyar, I still have 9 weeks of communting to do at $20 per week for the subways. That’s a cost of $180. Today, Nov 02, 2009 is the first workday for November, so if I were to use the Republican math, my two trips for the day work out to be $90 per trip.
Those MTA bastards!!
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:23 pmRepublicans can’t tell the difference between a calculator and a TV remote.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:23 pmRepublican calculator = Off-shore bank account statement(s)
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:25 pmEven if we accept the faux-formula, what the Republicans predicted is incorrect when compared to reality. Their own formula would show that the stimulation package is costing 16% less per job than they predicted. Do we really want to use the Republicans to predict the cumulative effects for the long term? Their predictions about the trend over the next two years would not win them any Nostradamus Awards.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:31 pmHyperinflation: no logic presented there…yawn.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:32 pmPaul Krugman won a Nobel Prize in economics, he is reality based and doesn’t deal in talking points.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 pmNice try at projection, troll.
Hyperinflation says:
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November 2nd, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Of course your analysis of Krugman and his statement are completely unbiased and impartial , correct , you moronic right-wing tool ?
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 pmOh, you mean that the Corporate News Networks would not check their facts and just out and out lie?
I…..AM……SOOOOOO……SHOCKED!!!
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 pmYou sir, should be medicated and in a padded room at Bellvue.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:39 pmMust…not…respond…to…troll…must…not…
OK, hyperinflation, exactly what crime are you implying that Krugman committed?
…respond…to…DAMMIT!
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 pmBeck should be in a cell at gitmo.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 pmsaying stupid shit like that is why eveyone is laughing at you.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:42 pmOMG!! I hope the Capitol Police are monitoring this…all the crazies will be out and about for the week long celebration of Halloween!! Don’t these Repub members of Congress ever do anything else but whine?
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:43 pmCan you imagine what the Gettysburg Address would have been like if Abraham Lincoln had used modern Republican math?
“Two score and a couple more years ago, our Fathers….”
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:50 pmI laughed my ass off when I heard John Boehner tell CNN’s John King that the republican stimulus package would have created many more new jobs then Obama’s stimulus package.
Of course he said this with a twinkle in his eye and a little grin on his face. If I had been John King I would have drilled him on his comment. How exactly would the gNOp’s stimulus package created more jobs? Boehner and the republicons are so full of sh*t and the media bobble heads let them get away with spewing their lies.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:53 pmSpeaking of inflation…. the hyperinflation argument bugs the shit outta me..
Look over the economic info for our entire history – Inflation is a result of the economy DOING WELL. Inflation has been relatively stagnant recently… hmmm… why is that? Maybe due to a recession? When jobs pick up we can expect inflation… it’s normal – and a good sign. It means prices are being raised.. which means people have the money to pay those higher prices. Inflation is always on an upward trend.. the same as GDP.. it’s not that complicated folks.
Now – all that said… wages for the middle class and lower class haven’t kept up with inflation. That is more complicated – but can be summed up quite simply as corporate greed.. and in turn overseas workers – which is just corporate greed.
A real life example: The Dairy Queen across the street usually has a line of people waiting to be served.. and usually has ONE person working. People would say this is due to the economic downturn… sortof – but no, If you follow the trail all the way up you will find some ass who has a near mansion.. 5 expensive cars.. a yacht – and he isn’t going to decrease his profits due to the recession, instead he cuts his staff. Yes, he could afford to keep a decent staff on hand.. but that would cut into his profits – and that’s simply unacceptable.
Economics isn’t as difficult a subject as the world makes it out to be. Nor is the effect of Capitalism.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:53 pmCareful “TP” Campbell Brown will be calling you out on CNN tonight.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:01 pmI heard John Boehner tell CNN’s John King that the republican stimulus package would have created many more new jobs then Obama’s stimulus package.
Hmmm… As I recall the Republican “Plan” was a FREEZE on all Govt. Spending.
That would have really sent a dangerous situation into a Real Tailspin.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:14 pmHi Hyperinflation:
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 pmI was wondering since K Street Whore is too much of a pussy, would you like to… Oh nevermind you probably don’t have the nerve either….
dbadass says:
Hi Hyperinflation:
I was wondering since K Street Whore is too much of a pussy, would you like to… Oh nevermind you probably don’t have the nerve either….
Or it’s the same troll.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:58 pmOf course it is…
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:06 pmI believe they call this brand of economic mathematics
“Regan math”.
Let’s give credit where credit is due. It has been around for 30 years.
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:37 pmHyperinflation at 31…
Before you just seemed plain silly. With this, shows your stupidity, and there is no cure. Sorry!
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:36 pmIf anyone is surprised by this, it’s because they don’t realize that the people at CNN are rightwingers too. Just looke at Karen Chetry she came from FOX and John Roberts is a republican or apoligist for them at best. Not to mention the rest of them including Wolf Blitzer, and company. I’ve known that they are rich reporters who are so greedy that they think democrats will take away their Bush tax cuts.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:53 pmJust another reason why American news outlets are totally unreliable information resources. It’s a shame that I have to use foreign news agencies to find out what’s going on in my country – even while I’m living in it!
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 pmHyperTrajanMORON
You are stupid. You are a liar and an ignorant pile of dogshit. No one with the slightest bit of sense could possibly care about the ignorance you spew. Just STFU PUNK
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:15 am“[...]$275,000 for every job created, which they calculated by taking the entire cost of the stimulus package and dividing it by the number of jobs created in just one year.”
$787B divided by 640,329 jobs (White House job creation figure, if you believe it) is not $275,000 per job. That calculation yields $1,229,055.69 per job created. Taking ($787B)*(24% already spent)/(640,329) results in a figure of $294,973.36 per job created. Sounds like the evil conservatives were actually a bit more forgiving in their calculation than they would have been if they had simply divided the money spent to date by the jobs created thus far.
Seems a bit hypocritical to call “BS” on an estimate when, in fact, you clearly haven’t checked the numbers yourselves. 50 replies and I’m guessing not a single one of you actually checked this out. BAAAAH
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:20 amCouldn’t resist…
“Paul Krugman won a Nobel Prize in economics, he is reality based and doesn’t deal in talking points.”
The Nobel Prize, ahh. Economics is almost a hard science… but it isn’t. Nobel Prize + anything other than a real science = ignorant, politically motivated intellectual fellation.
I believe that a man by the name of Algore was awarded one of those a few years back for starring in a movie about anthropogenic climate change. Never mind the fact that every shred of “evidence” offered in favor of the argument that we are destroying our planet with CO2 is either completely fraudulent (ex: hockey stick, the nature of the CO2-temperature correlation… the list goes on) or in actuality does not support the theory (but is pitched as such anyways).
I guess if you do some research, and by that I mean actually looking through scientific journals, it seems like he should have been labeled a con artist (who stands to make billions if cap and trade passes) instead of receiving a nifty medal.
Oh well. BAAAAH
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:52 amEconomist Paul Krugman was the one who was dead on in seeing the recession coming. He tried to warn against borrowing billions from China, the money vaccuum created by Bush’s military industrial complex and our collapsing infastructure. He warned about it incessently and was summarily ignored by the Bush Administration and the rightwing media. It was because of his foresight that he was awarded the Peace Prize, not cause he’s a stinkin’ librul but because if anyone had actually listened to him, much of this could have been avoided. He would have made a perfect and much needed fit in the Obama Administration however his ideologies clash somewhat with Obama’s. History will show that Krugman’s assessment of the stimulus package was dead on as well. He has argued that the package should be substantially larger and that the political climate (read: Repub obstruction) would prevent this possibility. History has already shown us in the years following the Great Depression that recovery would have been much quicker had the President stuck to his guns and continued spending instead of appeasing the republicans and slowing spending. The trolls assume that by calling for further Gov’t spending that Krugman must be an evil librul, ignoring the obvious fact that what Krugman is calling for is for the RECOVERY of our economy and without this spending our economy would have surely tanked by now. Silly Repubs, I don’t think their math skills can even compete with grade school comprehension much less credible economists.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:29 amThird, they are counting the stimulus funds that they had diverted to tax cuts and counting that as funds available to pay for jobs. They might be paying for jobs in China, but that’s about it.
An honest accounting would reveal that Republicans are full of bs. But then, I think we might have already had some idea about that.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:27 am31 Hyperinflation says:
krugman should be in a cell at gitmo.
I say, as would Krugman, Hyperinflation must be contained.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:34 amCheeseFlap says:
Methane divided
By conservative brain cells
Still a lot of gas
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Excellent Haiku, CheeseFlap. Sums up the situation pretty concisely. Concise
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 amHey Patriot,
On what authority do you claim that the economy would have tanked if not for the stimulus? Sounds like a W.H. talking point with no support.
Krugman may have predicted what was coming, but some economists are always right. On any given day there are thousands of economists predicting as many things. Krugman got something right, and now you automatically assume that he has some magical model that completely describes our economy. I call BS.
If that were true he would not advocate a larger stimulus. The only possible way that a large influx of government spending could be a positive thing is if we, as a country, were restrained enough to save money (read: national savings instead of national debt) in times of economic growth. We aren’t. This is why, while he agreed with the basic premises of Keynes, Friedman could not advocate his economics. They required too much government responsibility. Taking on this much debt is suicidal… over $100mil per day interest isn’t a joke.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:34 pmRek
He ALWAYS advocated a larger stimulus. Krugman won the Nobel Prize for Economics and YOU know better than him because? I mean other than you have an OPINION given you by RUSH that is.
November 4th, 2009 at 3:58 am