The president “is in trouble with a bad economy and wants to look like he’s doing something,” Mr. DeHaven said.

He said that even if rural areas managed to get companies to relocate, they were not creating jobs, simply moving them from one area to another with the help of federal taxpayers.

Another highly promoted Obama administration project — to bring broadband to rural areas — has also drawn criticism. In its report, the rural council said it had expanded broadband service to more than seven million rural Americans, including three million rural households and more than 350,000 rural businesses.

Under the stimulus act, $7.2 billion was allocated for expanding broadband to unserved and underserved areas, most rural. A 2009 Agriculture Department inspector general report found that the agency had made loans to provide broadband in 148 communities “within 30 miles of cities,” including Chicago and Las Vegas, and that 77 percent of all loans had gone to areas that already had broadband access available through private companies.

A report the same year by Northwestern University found that expanding broadband service to rural areas often did not offer the economic benefits promised or contribute to increased salaries or the tax base or create jobs.

“That’s not to say there is no benefit; there is some modest growth” said Shane Greenstein, a co-author of the report and a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. “But when you look at the data, it shows that the net benefit economically of bringing broadband to rural areas is small and arguably negative. Rural communities have a lot of issues, and broadband alone is not going to solve them.”

One of the biggest criticisms of rural development is that money may be going to areas that do not need it. Last year, rural development financing came under fire after the Indian tribe that runs the prosperous Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut, which had more than $1.3 billion in gross revenues in 2009, got a $54 million loan from the Agriculture Department to build a community center and tribal government office building. The Agriculture Department defended the loan, saying it would create jobs.