Stimulus Package: One Year Later

Last year on February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Acts three goals were to:

1) create new jobs
2) spur economic activity and long-term growth
3) end deficit spending and begin accountable government spending

The government is achieving this by spending $787 billion in:

1) tax cuts and benefits to working families and businesses ($288 billion)
2) increasing federal funds in health care and education ($224 billion)
3) federal contracts, grants and loans ($275 billion)

At the time the package was ridiculed. It was not a “politically easy decision”, according to President Obama, but it was necessary in order to keep the United States out of another Great Depression.

Now, a year later, the economy has gone from shrinking by 6.4% to growing at about 6%, 2 million jobs for Americans who would otherwise be unemployed, and awarded states with sums of money to help better their economies. For example, New York was awarded $12,478,500,000 and has so far received $2,000,760,000 and has seen 42,842 new jobs created. We can only continue to restore confidence in the economy and hope that it will continue improving.

The package’s goals are slowly being worked on: economic activity is being spurred (the economy is increasing by 6%), new jobs are being created in every state, and soon the government will start paying off its deficits.