Job Numbers Contradict Claims of Stimulus Success: Where are the jobs?

WASHINGTON – As the Administration pats itself on the back for supposedly “creating or saving” 2,400 jobs in West Virginia at the hand of economic stimulus legislation, count Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., among those who are a bit more skeptical.

“For the 35,000 West Virginians who’ve lost their job since the beginning of the year, I’m not sure claims of 2,400 ‘created or saved’ amounts to anything worthy of applause,” said Capito. “Particularly when even the 2,400 is widely viewed by experts as likely inflated.”

Last week the Associated Press reported that stimulus jobs were likely over-stated by thousands, while commentary in outlets like the Wall Street Journal noted that even if taken at face value, the “created or saved” jobs miss the real issue: net jobs and the unemployment rate which have continued to rise in recent months.

“The stimulus plan was billed as a jobs bill, a private sector jobs bill,” Capito added. “Yet what we’ve seen is a $787 billion spending bill that’s falling well short of expectations. Now we’re stuck with paying for something that we didn’t order in the first place. We ordered a jobs bill, but got more unemployment and a mountain of debt instead.”

In another report penned earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that a vast majority of West Virginia’s “created or saved” jobs were centered in the government sector – contradicting the President’s previous claim that 90 percent of the stimulus jobs would be in the private sector.

In a state already feeling the heat from potential cap-and-trade legislation and continued economic uncertainty in the coal industry due to delays from Environmental Protection Agency regulators, Capito says West Virginians are anxious and concerned that they’re not getting their money’s worth when it comes to Congress’s big ticket items.

“The constituents I’m hearing from have one primary question,” she says. “Where are the jobs?”