Road To Recovery


You seldom see published the following graph:

job loss history

Follow this link to the page on OFA web site that makes the case for what President Obama has already accomplished.

One year in, the evidence is clear – and growing by the day – that the Recovery Act is working to cushion the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and lay a new foundation for economic growth.

  • According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Recovery Act is already responsible for as many as 2.4 million jobs through the end of 2009
  • As a result, job losses are a fraction of what they were a year ago, before the Recovery Act began

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:

  • Cut taxes for 95 percent of working families through the Making Work Pay tax credit
  • Cut taxes for small businesses
  • Provided loans to over 42,000 small businesses
  • Funded over 12,500 transportation construction projects nationwide, ranging from highway construction to airport improvement projects
  • Made multi-billion dollar investments in innovation, science and technology that are laying the foundation for our 21st century economy
  • Provided critical relief for state governments facing record budget shortfalls, including help to prevent cuts to Medicaid and creating or saving over 300,000 education jobs

Economists on the left and the right have stated that the Recovery Act has helped avert an even worse economic disaster.

Follow this link to the CNN story Stimulus created jobs, controversy, backlash which reports on the above posting and adds some information of its own.

Mike Pickett, CEO of Onvia, a Seattle, Washington, firm that advises clients who may be looking to bid on contract work and tracks government contract spending, told CNN the stimulus so far is a mixed bag.

Picket estimated “roughly $68 billion have actually reached contractors and sub-contractors. We estimate that has delivered… or saved about 500,000 jobs.”

“It looks like the majority of the remaining funds — some $200 billion — will leave Washington and reach contractors this year. And that should increase the jobs created or saved number to around 1.6 million. And I think that’s where it’ll cap.”

Yet, despite the majority of the stimulus funds for job growth not having been spent yet, the nay sayers are repeating the lie that the stimulus is over and it’s all down hill from here.

I guess the Obama administration has decided that if the press won’t report the facts, they will have to do it themselves.  The poll cited in the CNN article shows the public holding onto badly misinformed ideas.  And who helps the public to remain misinformed?

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