Marathon Pundit: New "saved" jobs lies: Washington state, Nevada

Susan Barker is the superintendent of Castle Rock schools in Washington state. And the Daily News of Longview, Washington reports that she is upset with the Obama administration.

State and federal figures released last week report that initial federal stimulus dollars “saved or retained” 24,000 teachers in Washington — including 36 in Castle Rock. Teaching positions make up the bulk of the 34,500 jobs listed as saved in Washington by the federal Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which oversees stimulus spending.

Problem is, Barker said, that's just not true.

Barker called the federal board’s information a "misrepresentation of fact, and I know what we call that in my world."

The state did use stimulus money to help pay teachers during the 2008-09 school year. And the federal money did help avoid more painful budget cuts elsewhere in state government. But the teachers had binding contracts and teachers never would have been cut during a school year, so saying the money saved those jobs is just plain misleading, Barker said.

Or a lie.

The next story comes from Nevada, and it involves Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

In an Oct. 25 letter to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Nevada Democrat wrote, "There was also a debt cancellation provision in this bill that I personally inserted to protect Nevada. This provision is credited with saving more than 31,000 Nevada jobs at Harrah's alone."

Job creation and retention is a central theme in the 2010 re-election campaign of Reid, who is battling to keep his seat in a state with 13 percent unemployment. But the Congressional Record indicates several politicians can claim some credit for the provision.

Moreover, the figure cited for jobs saved, Harrah's officials acknowledge, amounts to the company's total number of employees in Nevada.