White House touts big spending in stimulus report

The stimulus package signed into law in February will have saved or created 1.5 million jobs by the end of this year, the Obama administration estimated in a report released Monday.

The report, issued by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), asserted that the government spending contained in the $787 billion stimulus package will have most directly contributed to the preservation or creation of a total of 6.8 million jobs by the end of 2012.

In a defense of the large amounts of spending in the bill, the CEA estimated that the government spending contained in the stimulus package will create the most jobs, followed by spending on state fiscal relief and tax cuts, in terms of effectiveness.

“They suggest that the spending needed per job-year is noticeably higher for tax
cuts than for state fiscal relief or direct government spending,” the report noted of the job creation estimates.

The government estimated it needed to spend $92,136 to create a single job for a year, versus $145,351 in tax cuts to achieve the same effect.

“Since most workers earn much less than $92,000 a year, the figure of $92,000 per job-year may seem large,” the report said, noting the gap between spending and wages go to bolster the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Thus, a figure of $92,000 per job-year is plausible and represents a very reasonable ‘bang for the buck.'”