So a few days ago, President-elect Donald Trump tweets that Carrier is not moving to Mexico and it is keeping jobs here.  He pats himself on the back for delivering on a campaign promise.  Except now we learn the truth:

The Carrier deal, brokered by President-elect Donald Trump, may not have saved as many factory jobs as was presented at the plant last week in Indianapolis.

Carrier workers received a flyer from the United Steelworkers, Local Union 1999. It details which jobs are staying here in Indy and which are going to Mexico. The numbers are a bit different from last week’s big announcement.

Last Thursday, amid much fanfare, President-elect Trump spent time on the factory floor and talked with union workers at the westside Indianapolis Carrier plant.

“We’re keeping a little over 1,100 jobs it turns out,” he told them.

He also made a big announcement about a big deal reached with United Technologies, Carrier’s parent company, to save 1,100 American jobs that were going to be moved to Mexico.

Carrier worker T.J. Bray, who’s also a communications rep for the union, told reporters across the country he was thrilled. His phone rang again while we talked with him Monday afternoon.

“I’ve been getting non-stop phone calls. Non-stop media. It’s been a wild, wild week,” Bray said.

But Bray and other union workers just learned some new numbers about the actual number of production jobs saved by the Trump-Pence deal.

“We didn’t know the breakdown before because no one would give us any information,” Union President Chuck Jones told Eyewitness News by phone Monday. “Now what we’re losing is 550 member jobs.”

“We found out today that more jobs are leaving than what we originally thought,” Bray said. “It seemed like since Thursday, it was 1,100 then it was maybe 900 and then now we’re at 700. So I’m hoping it doesn’t go any lower than that.”

Union workers got a letter at the plant saying Trump’s deal with Carrier will save only 730 factory jobs in Indianapolis, plus 70 salaried positions – 553 jobs in the plant’s fan coil lines are still moving to Monterrey, Mexico.

All 700 workers at Carrier’s Huntington plant will also lose their jobs.

So basically, dealmaker Donald Trump forced Indiana to cough up 7 million dollars to save 730, not 1100, jobs.  I mean, good news if you’re one of those people… but even then, is it?  This came about as a negotiation, a deal — not as a result of economic policy.  Trump cannot intercede like that for every company that intends to ship jobs overseas.

And by the way, interceding like that, and arranging for corporate welfare, isn’t exactly laissez-faire economics.  It is certainly not Republican.  Hell, even Sarah Palin has a problem with it:

Foundational to our exceptional nation’s sacred private property rights, a business must have freedom to locate where it wishes. In a free market, if a business makes a mistake (including a marketing mistake that perhaps Carrier executives made), threatening to move elsewhere claiming efficiency’s sake, then the market’s invisible hand punishes. Thankfully, that same hand rewards, based on good business decisions.

But this time-tested truth assumes we’re operating on a level playing field.

When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent. Meanwhile, the invisible hand that best orchestrates a free people’s free enterprise system gets amputated. Then, special interests creep in and manipulate markets. Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail.

Politicians picking and choosing recipients of corporate welfare is railed against by fiscal conservatives, for it’s a hallmark of corruption. And socialism. The Obama Administration dealt in it in spades. Recall Solyndra, Stimulus boondoggles, and all their other taxpayer-subsidized anchors on our economy. A $20 trillion debt-ridden country can’t afford this sinfully stupid practice, so vigilantly guard against its continuance, or we’re doomed.

Reaganites learned it is POLICY change that changes economic trajectory. Reagan’s successes were built on establishing a fiscal framework that invigorated our entire economy, revitalized growth and investment while decreasing spending, tax rates, over-reaching regulations, unemployment, and favoritism via individual subsidies. We need Reaganites in the new Administration.

I hate to say this, but Sarah Palin is right.  Right about what Republicans want.  This is, quite simply, Trump picking winners and losers.