US President Barack Obama defended Wednesday the $787 billion stimulus bill he had signed into law last year, which he said helped save Americans from another Great Depression.
Obama, who delivered his speech at the White House during the first anniversary of the signing of the Recovery Act bill, insisted that the stimulus bill rescued the country from the worst of the economic crisis. He also rebuked some Republicans who criticised the bill and called it a waste.
In his speech, Obama defended the stimulus by saying “it is one of the main reasons the economy has gone from shrinking by six percent to growing by about six percent”, and added that this bill “is responsible for the jobs of about two million Americans who would otherwise be unemployed”.
The president said the stimulus will preserve or generate 1.5 million jobs for Americans this year after preserving or generating up to two million jobs so far.
However, Obama has yet to convince Americans who still cannot find a job amid the country’s jobless rate of 9.7 percent.
According to a CBS News/New York Times survey conducted last week, only six percent of Americans were convinced that the stimulus had generated jobs. Another survey by CNN/Opinion Research Corporation indicated that majority of Americans were opposed to the bill.
In addition, the price tag of the government’s stimulus program has increased. The Congressional Budget Office projects that after everything is said and done, the cost of the bill will reach $862 billion considering the unemployment compensation that has been more expensive than expected.
