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The $787 billion package, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, contains money for state governments to fix schools, improve transportation and rethink energy use, among other programs. The bill also offers tax breaks for most Americans.
President Obama signed the legislation in Denver at the Museum of Nature and Science after the bill was passed by the House and Senate as the nation continues to struggle under the weight of an economic recession.
President Obama struck a hopeful tone at the signing ceremony.
“And just as President Kennedy sparked an explosion of innovation when he set America's sights on the moon, I hope this investment will ignite our imagination once more, spurring new discoveries and breakthroughs in science and in medicine, in energy to make our economy stronger and our nation more secure and our planet safer for our children,” he said.
Big bill with high goals
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 The administration's new website, recovery.gov, will show Americans where stimulus funds are going. |
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The size of the Recovery Act represents one of the biggestspending programs since the United States entered World War II.
Money for the stimulus will largely be borrowed and will add a significant amount to the ever-growing national debt.
By spending money to fix schools, computerize medical record systems or build new rail networks, the government will employ people who might otherwise not have a job.
“The stimulus will add 2 million to 2.5 million more jobs than would be the case without stimulus by year end 2010,” said economist Mark Zandi.
The White House also set up a new Web site, recovery.gov, so that Americans can see how their money is being spent.
Little Republican support in Congress
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Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is one of the three Senate republicans who voted for the stimulus bill. |
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President Obama’s stimulus plan had to be approved by both houses of Congress before he could sign the bill into law and start spending money.
Because Democrats control both the Senate and the House in the U.S. Congress, the bill eventually passed with only three Republican senators supporting it.
Democrats needed those three Republicans to get to the magic number of 60 -- the amount of votes needed to prevent a filibuster blocking the measure.
The three Republicans, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, negotiated a smaller bill than Democratic leaders originally wanted.
Republicans, who typically support lower taxes and less government spending, said the bill was too big, would shift too much debt to future generations and might not be successful in creating jobs.
Conservative NewsHour commentator David Brooks said that observers from both sides of the political spectrum are unhappy with the bill.
“I think it's a wasted opportunity. And I wish they had taken a bill and really done a sharp, short, shock, temporary, timely and targeted,” Brooks told the NewsHour. “And that would have been like a payroll tax going right to the lower middle class, giving them a lot of money right away.”
Economy in steep decline
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| President Obama accounced a $75 billion plan to help families facing foreclosure on their homes. |
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Although the Obama administration won a political victory,the economy is still in deep decline and there are many other dimensions to the recession that won’t be solved by even a successful stimulus plan.
On Feb. 18, Mr. Obama announced a new plan to help Americans at risk of losing their homes. The $75 billion plan attempts to save 9 million families from foreclosure, the process of a bank retaking a house when the homeowner cannot pay the mortgage.
The housing market has been plunging since 2007 and many families owe more on their home than they could sell it for in today's market.
The Obama administration, led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, is also spending hundreds of billions to help rebuild failing banks, which invested in the bad mortgages.
Economists say the housing market must hit bottom before the American economy can start functioning normally again.
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Joplin was able to rise from the ashes because of help from everyone. And I am eternally grateful to anyone who made that possible.
