White House turns to data and Schwarzenegger to defend stimulus

The Obama administration on Friday touted reports of 640,000 stimulus jobs, the latest economic numbers and the backing of a Republican governor to try to undercut GOP attacks on the effect of its massive $787 billion package.

Reports released Friday afternoon showed that stimulus projects, such as highway and other infrastructure work, have directly saved or created 640,329 jobs, Vice President Joe Biden said. White House officials said a total of about 1 million jobs have been created or saved by the stimulus when taking into account the roughly 400,000 jobs that come from the economic effect of tax cuts, increased Pell Grants and other direct payments not measured in Friday's reports.

"I can say, without fear of being contradicted by a responsible source, that so far we have created over a million jobs," Biden said.

Biden also noted that the GDP grew by a 3.5 percent annualized rate in the third quarter of 2009, marking the first time the economy expanded since last year's second quarter. Economists "left, right and center have attributed [the growth] to the Recovery Act," he added.

The White House said the latest data are signs the economy is getting back on track and that "the much-maligned and battered Recovery Act," as Biden described it, is actually working.

Republicans at every turn have cast skepticism on the stimulus's positive effect. They've noted that the unemployment rate, less than 8 percent when President Barack Obama took office, is now at nearly 10 percent.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it was "bewildering" to hear the White House's 1 million stimulus job claim. McConnell said that the Obama administration had "sold its trillion-dollar spending plan this spring as a guarantee against unemployment reaching 8 percent," a reference to White House projections in January that the stimulus would keep down the jobless rate.

"Today it's nearly 10 percent," he said.

Republicans believe their attacks on the stimulus are working. A Senate Republican aide pointed to a New York Times/CBS poll last month that found just 7 percent of Americans believe the package has already created jobs. The survey, however, did find that most Americans, 52 percent, think the act will eventually create jobs, and that a plurality, 47 percent, believe it will make things better in the long run.

The White House made a concerted effort this week to show that the latest hard count of stimulus jobs was credible and less vulnerable to attack than previously released stimulus reports. Two weeks ago, Republicans suggested that data showing that $16 billion in stimulus contracts had saved or created 30,083 jobs served as evidence that the stimulus wasn't doing much. This week, the Associated Press reviewed the contracts and found that the jobs number was "overstated by thousands." The White House Thursday issued a release calling the story "misleading" and noting that it focused on just 2 percent of stimulus spending.

Biden appeared Friday with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of a handful of Republicans outside Washington who publicly pushed for the White House's stimulus package.

"This is not something that is a Democrat issue here or a Republican issue; this is a people's issue," Schwarzenegger said. "It's a jobs issue. It's all about jobs, jobs, jobs."

Schwarzenegger also took on GOP suggestions that the stimulus reports have shown that the package hasn't had much effect. He said the data to be posted Friday afternoon will show that California, struggling to close a $60 billion deficit, has seen more than 100,000 jobs as a direct result of the package, the most of any state.

"This is also what our numbers show," Schwarzenegger added.

The data is available online at the White House's stimulus website, recovery.gov. The reports come from all 50 states and aim to show the result of about $159 billion in stimulus spending. About $340 billion in stimulus money has been spent so far.

Administration officials said the estimate of 1 million stimulus jobs created or saved so far isn't "perfect," but they said that it's in line with independent projections by the Congressional Budget Office and Moody's.

Jared Bernstein, the chief economist to the vice president, said that reports suggest that the stimulus is "on track" to hit the White House target of ultimately saving or creating 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. The 640,329 jobs that are a direct result of the stimulus come from just 20 percent of stimulus spending, White House officials noted.

"A lot more ammunition left in this job package," Bernstein said.

This story was updated at 6:15 p.m.