This post is about an AMGer named JIMV.

JIMV is a lemming, or maybe a computer program, that only does one thing: express belief in everything Sean Hannity tells him. Every single word. If a Republican did it, only Jesus could have done it better (and that’s only on one of Jesus’ good days).

Luckily for all of us, the economy of Maine was so repressive that JIMV decided to up and leave for greener pastures. Err, browner pastures. Specifically, Idaho.

He now makes his living, doing whatever it is JIMV does, in Boise. I have trouble believing that JIMV can actually hold a job because I wouldn’t trust his judgment to do much more than flip burgers. I have trouble imagining any possible employer could feel any different after about ten minutes with the guy. But maybe in Idaho they have different standards than they do here.

I bring this up now because the miracle of Google helped me discover that JIMV’s online wisdom is not restricted to As Maine Goes. He also posts on a message board in Idaho. Over there he brings up excellent, well-thought-through Hannity talking points like this bit on the stimulus:

I am letting you get away with lowballing the stimulous to the official $700 billion (when the real cost was $840 Billion)…

Now divide the cost by the pretend jobs and what do you get?

Folk with better math than I note the cost per claimed job comes in just under $200K….

So, say $190K per job….pretty pricey to hire a half million or so temp census workers or to keep overpaid government union members or rich ‘educators’ employed on the dime of the actual poor and middle class.

Another math test….what if BoBo had simply taken the $840 billion and cut a $50K check per person, he could have written over 16 million checks to folk…imagine getting a $50K check in the mail!

That “reasoning” might sound convincing for about two seconds. Sort of like how it might seem like a good idea to drive to Idaho and punch JIMV in the face for about two seconds. But then you think about all the negatives. I mean, that is a lot of time and money invested for very little outcome. Idaho’s pretty far away. If he moves to Ohio, I might reconsider.

So $190K per job sounds really bad, I guess, if you accept that dividing the total cost of an organization by the number of people working for it equals the “cost” per job. Of course, it doesn’t make any sense, and this is why JIMV would never succeed in the business world.

Can you imagine him as CEO? I have this theory that all Republicans think they’d make great CEOs because unlike the rest of the population, they believe they know how to make the “tough” decisions. Here’s how I picture JIMV in the role:

JIMV: Hi, CFO. I just figured out that each of our employees cost us $190K each! We need to bring those costs down!

The unlucky CFO (who just can’t believe JIMV is the more successful of the two): Whoa, Jim. Slow down. We pay our employees an average of 45K per year.

JIMV: No. We have total revenues of 190,000,000, and we have 1,000 employees, so obviously each employee costs us 190K! We need to fire some of them or something. Maybe they will each agree to a 70% pay cut?

The CFO: Jim, that makes no sense. We do more than pay our employees. We buy supplies. We have overhead. We need it to create products that people want. Our employees don’t get all that.

JIMV: Dammit, man, I’m sick of your Democrat math. You’re fired! Look, I just saved us $190K!

Memo to JIMV: The stimulus actually BUILT THINGS. It wasn’t just “190K per job.” Each 190K got us a job AND a few miles of rejuvenated highway, a school that didn’t close, a few people getting unemployment benefits so they could feed their kids, and (gasp!) some tax cuts!

Think about it, dude, in between burger flips.

JIMV: A Republican’s Republican. A man devoid of any independent thought.