One year ago President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the Stimulus Bill.
According to economists on the left and the right, there is reason to believe that the Recovery Act helped avert a major economic disaster. Looking at economic indicators across the board, there is an unmistakable optimistic trend.
Just today, AP reported, “Industrial production rose 0.9 percent in January, the seventh consecutive monthly increase as manufacturers help lead the nation’s economic recovery. Numbers rose in all three major categories: manufacturing, mining and energy utilities.”
This chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that even job losses are finally waning.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the Recovery Act is already responsible for retaining or creating as many as 2.4 million jobs through the end of 2009 and as a result, job losses are a fraction of what they were a year ago.
The White House released this list of Recovery Act accomplishments:
* 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