On December 13, 2010, in a post titled Obama’s Two Year Descent, I wrote the following:

Almost two years later, we have found out that the total cost of the Stimulus was 862 billion dollars, 75 billion more than expected.  Americans have also found out that it is a miserable failure.  Here is a breakdown by the numbers, courtesy of gop.com:

3.5 MILLION: Jobs Obama Promised Stimulus Would Create By End Of 2010.

3.3 MILLION: Jobs Lost Since Obama Made That Promise.

 

6.8 MILLION: Jobs Obama Must Now Create To Keep Promise By End Of 2010.

 

1.1 MILLION: Jobs Obama’s Economists Project Will Be Created By End Of 2010.

 

5.7 MILLION: Jobs By Which Obama’s Economists’ Projection Leaves Him Short In Keeping Promise. 

 

6 PERCENT: Not Surprisingly, Number Of Americans That Say Obama’s Stimulus Created Jobs.

7.7 PERCENT: Unemployment Rate When Obama Was Selling Stimulus In January 2009.

8 PERCENT: Unemployment Rate Obama Pledged Stimulus Would Prevent Us From Reaching.

9.7 PERCENT: Current Unemployment Rate.

16.5 PERCENT: Current Unemployment Rate When Underemployed And Discouraged Workers Are Included.

334,000: Americans That Have Given Up Looking For A Job Since Stimulus Was Signed.

47: States That Have Lost Jobs Since Stimulus Was Signed.

10: States That Moved From Single-Digit To Double-Digit Unemployment Rate Since Stimulus Was Signed.

$862 BILLION: Updated Cost Of Stimulus, $75 Billion Increase From Last Year’s Cost Estimate.

440: Number Of Nonexistent Congressional Districts That Received Stimulus Funds.

$6.4 BILLION: Amount Of Stimulus Funds That Went To Nonexistent Congressional Districts.

$18 MILLION: Cost Of Stimulus Website, Recovery.gov.

Apollo Alliance exerts a powerful influence on the views and policies of the Obama administration. AA helped craft portions of the $787 billion “stimulus” legislation (officially called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) that President Obama signed into law in early 2009. Specifically, AA had a hand in writing the “clean energy and green-collar jobs provisions” of the bill, for which $86 billion was earmarked. This included funds “to build new transit and high speed rail lines, weatherize homes, develop next generation batteries for clean vehicles, scale up wind and solar power, build a modern electric grid, and train a new generation of green-collar workers.” AA recommended that the stimulus bill allocate $11 billion for the development of a so-called “Smart Grid,” which would use digital technology to deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers; ultimately the bill allocated precisely that amount to Smart Grid-related projects, including a $100 million provision for job training related to Smart Grid technology.

Confirming the magnitude of AA’s role in shaping the stimulus bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reidsaid in mid-2009: “The Apollo Alliance has been an important factor in helping us [the U.S. Senate] develop and execute a strategy that makes great progress on these goals and in motivating the public to support them.”

Now, in 2012, we have found out that “Obama Money” (as those women in Detroit called it) can buy him friends…or, at least more propaganda.

Per The Washington Times:

The Labor Department paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus funds to a public relations firm to run more than 100 commercials touting the Obama administration’s “green training” job efforts on two MSNBC cable shows, records show.

The commercials ran on MSNBC on shows hosted by Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann in 2009, but the contract didn’t report any jobs created, according to records reviewed recently by The Washington Times.

Spending reports under the federal Recovery Act show $495,000 paid to McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations LLC, which the Labor Department hired to raise awareness “among employers and influencers about the [Job Corps] program’s existing and new training initiatives in high growth and environmentally friendly career areas” as well as spreading the word to prospective Job Corps enrollees.

The firm ultimately negotiated ad buys for “two approved spots” airing 14 times per week for two months on “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” according to a project report, which listed the number zero under a section of the report asking how many jobs had been created through the stimulus contract.

David Williams, president of the nonprofit watchdog Taxpayers Protection Alliance, called the contract “questionable” because it created no jobs and because of the placement of the ads on shows viewed as friendly to the administration’s policies.

“Hiring a PR firm does not create jobs, and this was obviously meant for selling a particular political agenda,” Mr. Williams said. “The placement really reeks of a political ad rather than a job ad, and taxpayers see through this.

“Taxpayers would be a lot happier at the end of the day to see a completed road rather than a bunch of ads on cable television,” he said.

The public relations firm did not respond to inquiries from The Times about who directed the ads to appear on MSNBC, but Labor Department officials defended the expenditures, saying the decision to place the ads on the network — now NBC News — had nothing to do with politics.

And, I’m Elvis.

Thankyaverymuch.