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1 Year In, Stimulus Has Saved 2M Jobs

Critics who say it's failed are off base: David Leonhardt

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 17, 2010 11:40 AM CST

(Newser) – It may not “yet feel like much of a recovery” to jobless Americans, President Obama concedes, but it’s thanks to the massive economic stimulus package passed a year ago “that a second depression is no longer a possibility.” Obama celebrated the anniversary of the recovery act today with a reminder that it had saved or created around 2 million jobs. And David Leonhardt seconds the president's claim. The “best-known economic research firms” all agree with the president’s jobs numbers, he writes in the New York Times.

And second, Leonhardt adds, Vice President Biden is right when he notes that critics fail to acknowledge that we’re only “halfway through the act.” Calling the stimulus a failure now is “almost as if the lasting image of the lunar space program was Apollo 6, an unmanned 1968 mission that had engine problems, and not Apollo 11, the moon landing.”

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, delivers remarks on the economy on the one year anniversary of the signing of the Recovery Act.
President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, delivers remarks on the economy on the one year anniversary of the signing of the Recovery Act.   (AP Photo)
President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, delivers remarks on the economy on the one year anniversary of the signing of the Recovery Act.
President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, delivers remarks on the economy on the one year anniversary of the signing of the Recovery Act.   (AP Photo)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 68 comments
thekeepitrealman
Feb 18, 2010 12:40 PM CST
As someone who chooses the handle "hopey changey", no doubt from sara palin's latest diatribe "how's that hopey changey thing workin' for ya?"- I have little use for your opinion. I'm basing my statement on those findings of the best known economic research firms as mentioned in this and other articles. Are things still bad? Yes, the President says as much. Are there still too many people unemployed? Yes, the President says as much. The question is how much worse would things be if the actions had not been taken. There's still more stimulus money to spend, so hopefully things will continue to get better. So "hopey changey" you can kiss my black ass and bury your head back in the Fox bullshit.
odowd80
Feb 18, 2010 12:19 PM CST
@Reader: Are GOP governors creating jobs? Is Obama the only person in the United States who should be working toward recovery?
ptolemny
Feb 18, 2010 7:06 AM CST
What the right is unable, or merely unwilling, to grasp is the concept of the counterfactual; we would be in much, much worse shape had McCain won. Remember that when Mccain suspended his campaign to address the financial meltdown and attended a meeting with D.C. elites to address the problem and was asked what he thought should be done the guy had nothing to say. Now, imagine if we had gone with than "plan" - nothing. Does anyone really think we would be better off had we adopted the McCain "plan"? As for the republican party, their plan was half-assed and inadequate as well. To take one example, the RNC's plan included the extension of unemployment insurance benefits through December 2009, meaning that, had we taken that route, millions and millions of jobless Americans would have no source of income to put food on the table and a roof over their and their families' heads. If you think folks are angry now, we would have had some serious civil unrest by now under the republicans' "leadership." The fact that republicans in D.C. can even continue to dick around and avoid doing any real work is a testament to Obama's abilities as POTUS.
 

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