Tens of thousands lose stimulus-subsidized jobs

Tens of thousands of low-income workers lost their jobs Thursday as a stimulus-subsidized employment program came to an end. About a quarter of a million people in 37 states were placed in short-term jobs thanks to a $5 billion boost to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. States used about $1 billion to provide subsidized employment, with the remaining funds going to cash grants, food programs, housing assistance and other aid... State officials and advocacy groups have been lobbying Congress to extend the jobs program and other Recovery Act measures, but federal lawmakers have shown little appetite to do so.

Counting these people as "employed" in the general sense, on such a temporary program, was serious statistical deception. But because government got to rest on its laurels a little bit longer by using such an artifice, the next wave of the economic crisis will be that much more severe.