The White House says news reports that the stimulus bill cost taxpayers $278,000 per job is flawed, The White House says.
The president's Council of Economic Advisers late Friday ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend estimated the Recovery Act saved or created between 2.4 million and 3.6 million jobs by the end of March 2011. Spending equaled $666 billion by that time.
But the conservative Weekly Standard extrapolated the numbers and wrote of the stimulus: "That's a cost to taxpayers of $278,000 per job. In other words, the government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the 'stimulus,' and taxpayers would have come out $427 billion ahead."
But the White House said that the Weekly Standard used "partial information and false analysis," according to
Fox News.
"The Recovery Act was more than a measure to create and save jobs; it was also an investment in American infrastructure, education and industries that are critical to America's long-term success and investment in the economic future of America's working families," White House spokeswoman Liz Oxhorn said in a statement to Fox..
"The nonpartisan CBO has confirmed that the Recovery Act delivered as promised, lowering the unemployment rate by as much as 2 percent, boosting GDP by as much as 4 percent and creating and saving as many as 3.6 million jobs," she said.
A White House official also told Fox News that the stimulus wasn't just about salaries, but it purchased construction material and provided infrastructure.
"It's essentially saying part of the cost of a factory construction job is part of the factory itself, but investments like factories have a lasting and larger economic impact beyond just the initial job count," the official said.
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