How has “creating or saving jobs” been working out for Obama and the stimulus plan? The Wall Street Journal reports on how a shoe store owner “saved” nine jobs with just short of $900:
How did Kentucky shoe store owner Buddy Moore save nine jobs with just $889.60 in federal stimulus money? He didn?t, and that?s turning into a big headache for him.
Moore?s store in Campbellsville, Ky., filed one of 156,614 reports from recipients of stimulus dollars designed to show how money from the $787 billion program is being spent, and how many jobs the funds have created or saved.
Moore?s slice of the stimulus came in an $889.60 order from the Army
Corps of Engineers for nine pairs of work boots for a stimulus project.
Moore says he?s been supplying the Corps with boots for at least two
decades. This year, because he provided safety shoes for work funded by
the stimulus package, he said he got a call from the Corps telling him
he had to fill out a report for Recovery.gov
detailing how he?d used the $889.60, and how many jobs it had helped
him to create or save. He later got another call, asking him if he?d
finished the report.?The paperwork was unreal,? said Moore, who added that he tried to
figure out how to file the forms online, then gave up and asked his
daughter to help.Paula Moore-Kirby, 42 years old, had less trouble
with the Web site, but couldn?t work out how to answer the question
about how many jobs her father had created or saved. She couldn?t leave
it blank, either, she said. After several calls to a helpline for
recipients she came away with the impression that she would hear back
if there was a problem with her response, and have a chance to correct
it. So with 15 minutes to go before the reporting deadline, she sent in
her answer: nine jobs, because her father helped nine members of the
Corps to work.
