By Sadie Bass

Nov 18, 2009 10:54am

Why Was White House Website Riddled With Errors?

On Monday night, we reported on errors we found on the website set up by the White House to track the number of jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus program.  The website was riddled with reports of jobs in places that didn't even exist.  That report prompted anger on Capitol Hill, and defensiveness at the White House.  On last night's broadcast, our Chief Congressional Correspondent Jon Karl took another look at the stimulus confusion.

User Comments

I think this is more due to the complexity and sheer size rather than outright fraud and deceit by Obama or his ilk. Any time you come up with a program that is so large, so expensive, and so complex it is very hard to get accurate data. No doubt there is fraud, abuse, and deceit involved but this is more likely from local businesses and governments who received the funds from this program. Also from political cronys at more local levels who want Obama to look good. Obama isn’t stupid and he wouldn’t authorize the outright fraud and misreporting at a national level because it was too easy to identify.

Posted by: Ed | November 18, 2009, 11:25 am 11:25 am

Errors……or lies?

Posted by: Rick McDaniel | November 18, 2009, 11:42 am 11:42 am

Easy way to tell: errors should cut both ways, that is, result in some overcounts and some undercounts. But if substantially all the errors tend only one way, then somebody had their hand on the scales. Seems likely that the Obama administration tried to game the reporting process to get the highest possible number for the intentionally meaning standard it set for itself (there is no such measure as jobs “saved or created”) and then got caught when the results came out so blatantly falsified.

Posted by: Greg | November 18, 2009, 11:48 am 11:48 am

The stimulus website shows the typical government standard operating procedure. But because the website is accurately displaying what a mess it is, the public is demanding that it be cleaned up. That’s real accountability and I hope that it continues to be embraced by the administration regardless of the pain it causes them. Forget the lofty campaign promises, this one little change – posting detailed, accessible, timely and verifiable spending information on line – could be an enormous game changer. The people will have the power to demand specific change and verify it happens.
Republicans should be attacking the errors, but if they are an honest opposition party they will praise the disclosure website AND demand that such disclosure be expanded. It is certainly worth the cost of the websites to allow we the people to audit the government’s abysmal books.

Posted by: jhw539 | November 18, 2009, 11:57 am 11:57 am

So far nobody in the White House OR anywhere in the nation has pointed out new jobs that have been accidently deleted from the report.
One example of new jobs: over l00 new jobs were reported, but the jobs were already there. They got a small raise. That was it.
Another example: a CEO got a huge raise.
The most interesting examples of all:
jobs that are located in fantasy land only.
How in the world could this be just a human error? There are too many examples of obvious made-up data.
They had to come clean. There was no way out.
Yes, the website is a mess, but it’s in their favor only.

Posted by: ddg | November 18, 2009, 12:39 pm 12:39 pm

Question: Why Was White House Website Riddled With Errors?
Answer: Because it is run by the government.
Did I get it right?
Do I win some sort of prize?

Posted by: Noz | November 18, 2009, 2:08 pm 2:08 pm

I agree the President is not stupid, he would not post such lies. Like my case at , I believe that there is to much corruption in other parts of the government. Would not put it past any one involved in the conspiracy that I have been dealing with to make up things in order to receive money. This is what I have been complaining to President Obama about he needs to clean up the State Governments where there are conspiracy being swept under the rugs, and there has to be pay off going on and where are those pay off coming from? This is all coming from the corrupt side of the government and not the President.

Posted by: Tina Hayner | November 18, 2009, 2:54 pm 2:54 pm

This is even worse than the old site’s errors, like: “Nucular Policy” and “Fool me one, shame on you. Fool me twice – don’t do it.”

Posted by: The_Mick | November 18, 2009, 4:30 pm 4:30 pm

Error is not new for this WH:
President Barack Obama, says he believes “a consensus” is emerging in Congress on the climate issue. But he also accused opponents of making “cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence” that the earth is becoming warmer in an attempt to derail legislation.
The claims of carbon-driven anthropogenic global warming (AGW) are unproven and are, in fact, contested by over 31,000 scientists (compared to fewer than 50 on the United Nation’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who claim AGW is a serious and immediate problem).
Global temperatures have not risen since 2000 and data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration demonstrates that the earth has actually been cooling for the last 4 years and new research from MIT has dispelled one of the key underpinnings of anthropogenic global warming theory (the notion that more long-wave radiation is trapped in the earth’s atmosphere when temperature rises).
The touted, climate benefit of cap-and-trade schemes is that global surface temperatures will be one-tenth-of-one-degree cooler than currently projected in one hundred years, if one even accepted the contested claims of AGW.

Posted by: Ed Taylor | November 18, 2009, 6:59 pm 6:59 pm

Obama is like any other socialist dictator….he would and did just openly commit fraud with his croonies….Zelaya, Mao, Chavez, Castro…all did the same. Obama has the ego and none of the brains so doesn’t mind robbing us…after all we were stupid enuff to vote him even with all his corrupt and terrorist and communist buds.

Posted by: VeryPainfulTruth | November 18, 2009, 7:34 pm 7:34 pm

I didn’t vote him in, that’s for sure.You can bet some of his czars told him the American public was too stupid and trusting to ever find out about these fraudulent jobs.And you can further bet nothing will be done about the missing money either.

Posted by: yeager12 | November 18, 2009, 7:52 pm 7:52 pm

It asks how many jobs were created and 100 is reported for a sewer job and it is in reality only 5 jobs created? This is flat out lying.

Posted by: d | November 18, 2009, 8:47 pm 8:47 pm

If the Govt can’t get a simple thing right like running a website yet Liberals want Govt to run the health system which is far more complex? This is absurd and points clearly that US govt is not known for its competence.

Posted by: Gregh | November 19, 2009, 12:04 am 12:04 am

Good thing there is now transparency in government so these errors could be caught early! Phew! You can thank Obama for that. Under Bush, who would have known, since there would have been no way to check? Looks like the White house is going to review and correct the 1% that is inaccurate and have accurate results by the end of the week. (which you can then also double check.) Good job public! Way to keep government honest! Looks like Obama’s whole point of making government transparent is working.

Posted by: Juneau Smog | November 19, 2009, 2:05 am 2:05 am

They are transparent. You can see right through them! They told some whoppers, didn’t they?
Explanation? Human error.
Tell me another one, why don’t you?
You call that “inaccurate”. I call that out and out lying. They made up whole districts. Nine pairs of boots were ordered. They counted THAT as creating nine jobs. “Inaccurate”?
It’s just plain lying, that’s all.

Posted by: ddg | November 19, 2009, 5:52 am 5:52 am

Apparently, you aren’t into reading. I’m assuming your’re a Republican as well since they are the ones always complaining about reading. But as the article said, the White House listed the districts reported to them by those receiving the grants. Since many people have no idea what district they live in, many just made something up, especially if under deadline to get their paperwork in. Do you know Congressional district you live in?
And like the article said, Obama claims to have save/created 640k jobs, and 700 of those were to fictional congressional districts. That’s .1%. Factor in the 9 shoes and the other errors and you have about 1% inaccuracy in the reporting. So when they fix those numbers by the end of the week and make sure the districts are correct, you’ll be cool then? And I assume you’ll be applauding the fact we have transparency in government in order to keep government honest? Why do I think that is too much to ask from an illiterate?

Posted by: Juneau Smog | November 19, 2009, 2:12 pm 2:12 pm

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