WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s $800 billion-plus economic-stimulus law may not be earning good grades with the public, but the White House claims it’s on track to produce the promised 3.5 million jobs.
Friday’s report says about two-thirds of the stimulus money has been spent via tax cuts or government spending and remarkably little of the money has gone out fraudulently.
The stimulus bill was passed in February of last year to try to reverse the worst recession since the Great Depression. The White House and many economists credit it with giving the economy a needed jolt. But Republicans say it’s been ineffective, citing a nationwide unemployment rate still hovering near 10 percent.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the legislation is responsible for as few as 1.4 million jobs and as many as 3.3 million. The report also cites a study by noted economists Mark Zandi and Alan Blinder, who estimated that unemployment would have spiked to 11.6 percent by the end of this year had the stimulus measure not been passed.
By The Associated Press
