Since the stimulus bill has passed the White House has been touting they they’ve saved or created 150,000 jobs. The president even mentioned the statistic during last week’s press conference. The 150,000 job figure is a made up statistic. There’s no way to back up the claim. In reality Obama’s claim is a lie, but in politics it’s called an “artful talking point.”

It turns out the feds don’t have a way to measure exactly how many jobs have been created or saved, so they use projections instead, and it’s all rather academic. The new estimate, like the original one predicting the stimulus bill would save or create 3 to 4 million jobs, came from the Council of Economic Advisers . To get the number Obama used, economists at the council simply prorated their earlier estimates based on stimulus outlays as of April 21.
As we’ve reported before, the administration’s estimates are based on a guess at how much tax cuts and government spending will make the economy grow.

This is Obama’s version of a transparent and honest government. At best all an Obama defender can do is point to Bush, but I thought the whole idea was change? The president is making up up fake statistics for political posturing (this sure sounds familiar). When the president makes such a boldface lie at a televised press conference shouldn’t the press be all over it the next day? Whatever happened to speaking truth to power?