A man walked into a restaurant carrying a shotgun and leading a buffalo. He ordered coffee, drained his cup, shot the buffalo stone dead and disappeared. The very next day he came back, drank coffee, shotgunned another buffalo and again dropped out of sight.

On the third morning the man again came into the establishment leading a buffalo and carrying that same old shotgun. This time the manager intercepted him and asked what he was doing.
The man replied, " I come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull and leave the mess for somebody else to clean up."
"I see that," said the manager. "But why?"
To which the man replied, "Well, I'm practicing for the new government job I got through the stimulus plan."

Just so you know, Helen and I together worked, (she still does), more than 70 years for the county and federal governments. So I know a little about government jobs and believe me, they're not all like the ones for which that man was preparing. But some are.
The official name of the law commonly know as the stimulus plan is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 a.k.a. the ARRA.

Passed and signed into law early this year, the ARRA has been both touted as a rousing success and pointed to as a prime example of government inefficiency. Economic Policy Institute spokesman Lawrence Mishel, invited by the Obama Administration to testify before Congress, said of the ARRA, "I think it's working amazingly well. We are creating 200 to 250,000 jobs a month."

Mr. Mishel is thinking all right, wishfully thinking without substance. For the Congressional Committee on Ways and Means recently released data claiming 30,383 jobs created or saved since ARRA became law. OK, nine months times 200 to 250,000 versus 30,383 – quite a difference. As the old saying goes, "I guess that's close enough for government work."

By the way, that 30,383 figure counts jobs anticipated to be made by contracts awarded but not yet under way. The phrase "created or saved" seems to be an attempt to enable false claims, for "jobs saved" can neither be verified nor disproved.

An interesting aspect to the Ways and Means Web site is revealed in its links to the site of both parties serving there. The majority site says but one thing; it thanks you for visiting and refers to the administrations site that tracks the ARRA. That's where the 30,383 jobs claim is extolled.
Of course they don't say how much each of those jobs cost in tax dollars. The lowest claim of costs per job is $71,300, but the most reliable estimates are that each ARRA job cost taxpayers $283,000. That would be a nice salary, wouldn't it?

The minority party site links to official Labor Department data with figures of jobs promised before December, 2010 and the status of those figures to date.
ARRA promised 3,460,000 new jobs, but to date instead of climbing toward that goal we are sliding inexorably downhill with a loss of 2,298,300 jobs.
For Tennessee the ARRA promised 70,000 new jobs. Adding jobs created or saved, claimed to be 1,156, to the current status of minus 48,300 jobs shows the Volunteer State has lost 49,456 jobs since ARRA became law.

Tennessee is not alone. The Labor Department says 49 of the 50 states have lost jobs since ARRA was passed. North Dakota alone shows positive job growth.
Oh, I forgot. The District of Columbia has more jobs, too - government jobs.

taylormadetalk@yahoo.com