HARRISBURG – Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason released the following statement on the Obama administration’s decision to change the way they measure how many jobs have been ‘saved or created’ under the $787 billion stimulus package.

“The Obama administration can tinker with the equation as much as it wants, but the fact remains that their nearly $1 trillion stimulus package has proven to be an abject failure,” Gleason said. “President Obama and the Democrats in Washington promised the American people that their $787 billion stimulus package would keep unemployment below 8%, but our nation is now facing a double-digit unemployment rate and an unsustainable national debt.

“Nearly 540,000 Pennsylvanians are currently unemployed, and thousands more are waking up every day with the fear that today may be their last day on the job as well. It’s time to stop padding the scorecard and start focusing on ways to get our country back to work.”

Recently, the Office Of Management and Budget released a memo which stated that the Obama Administration will be instituting new guidelines to measure the number of jobs affected by the stimulus plan. (Office of Management and Budget, “Updated Guidance on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – Data Quality, Non-Reporting Recipients, and Reporting Of Job Estimates,” 12/18/09, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-08.pdf)

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Thursday, January 14, 2010
Contact: Michael Barley
Press Release