Obama Promises 600K Stimulus Jobs

Public works, education get plenty of attention in measure

(NEWSER) - House Democrats today introduced a long-awaited stimulus package, developed with President-elect Obama, and totaling $825 billion, the New York Times reports. The economic recovery plan includes billions in tax cuts, Medicare subsidies, and public-education and infrastructure spending. The Senate is developing its own version, and vigorous debate is anticipated as Congress attempts to pass the legislation by mid-February. More»

Wall Street Journal thinks 100K figure is way off

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration says a $10 billion portion of its 2009 stimulus directly prompted the creation of 100,000 jobs in alternative energy, but the claim is difficult to measure. Trouble is, such assessments are based on mathematical formulas and reports, not straightforward counts. Indeed, the Congressional Research Service urged "skepticism" in the matter; now, the Wall Street Journal finds the number of jobs created to be "far fewer." It doesn't provide a total, but rounds up example after example of projects that didn't deliver as promised. More»

President's miscalculations include scale, momentum

(NEWSER) - Scott Brown’s Senate victory in Massachusetts is the final nail in the coffin of the Obama administration’s first-year political strategy, John F. Harris and Carol E. Lee write for Politico . The miscalculations cover “three major counts":

• Believing 2008 was a game-changer: The Obama team thought the "election represented something seismic." But "the assumption that Obama would be swimming mostly with the current rather than often against it on issues such as health care, financial regulation and global warming was naive in retrospect."

Tight with prez, Duncan holds keys to $5B in stimulus funds

(NEWSER) - Tight with President Obama and with $5 billion at his disposal, Arne Duncan may become the strongest education secretary in history, writes Nia-Malika Henderson for Politico. “Never ever have they had $5 billion to decide what to do in the education system,” says an education advocate. And it’s up to Duncan—a big believer in merit pay for teachers, data systems to track performance, and charter schools to try new strategies—to choose how to dispense that cash to states. More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama's top economist is confident that swift action by the administration averted disaster, ABC News reports. “We were at the brink of catastrophe at the beginning of the year,” Larry Summers says, “but we have walked some substantial distance back from the abyss.” Summers credits the recovery to the two-tiered plan that moved quickly to stabilize the financial system while simultaneously preparing for future growth. More»