From an April 21 Investor's Business Daily editorial, titled, “Lying About Jobs”:

A report was touting the success of the administration's stimulus package even before it was sworn in. Released on Jan. 10, 2009, the report showed joblessness peaking at just below 8% under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Without stimulus, we were told, there would be 133.9 million jobs in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2010. That's the baseline. With stimulus, we would have almost 3.7 million more than that.

Today, there are 129.7 million jobs. The folks at BigGovernment.com looked at the data and found that to justify the administration's current claim of 2.8 million jobs saved or created, they had to lower the baseline by 7 million jobs to only 126.9 million.

This is a little like a football team making a first down, not by advancing the ball 10 yards, but by having the referees moving the first-down marker.

Indeed, a chart in the April 14, 2010, report on the stimulus shows that's what the administration has done. It has moved the yard markers by altering and lowering its original baseline projections.

The administration continues paying a shell game with its “saved or created” job claims. First, it went from “creating” jobs to “saving or creating” them. Then it listed jobs saved or created in nonexistent congressional districts and zip codes. Now it's altering its own baseline projections to show progress where there is decline.

Previously:

Right wing falsely accuses Obama admin. of “cooking the books” on stimulus job impact