Obama hails stimulus one year after its signing

While many right-wing politicians and pundits have relentlessly attacked the $787 billion economic stimulus bill over the past year, President Obama defended it today as he marked the one-year anniversary of signing the the controversial piece of legislation.

Upon signing the bill known as the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act last year, the legislation that the administration dubbed "the most sweeping economic recovery package in history", has added between 1.5 percent and 4 percent to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in each of the last three quarters of 2009, and is said to have created or saved $2.4 million jobs last year - although unemployment has increased from 8 percent to nearly 10 percent over that period. White House advisers say it is on track to create another 1.5 million jobs in 2010.

"One year later, it is largely thanks to the Recovery Act that a second depression is no longer a possibility," Obama told an audience of business owners and workers. "It is the main reason the economy has gone from shrinking by 6 percent to growing by about 6 percent."

Critics of the bill have argued that its cost was too great and hasn't been effective at creating jobs. However, most Independent economists agree that the stimulus package diverted the country from falling into another depression equal or greater to that of the Great Depression.

"You can argue rightly that we haven't made as much progress as we need to make when it comes to spurring job creation," Obama said. "That's part of the reason why I expect Congress to pass additional measures as quickly as possible that will help our small business owners create new jobs give them more of an incentive to hire."

The president also shot back at many of his political adversaries, saying that they enjoy chastising the bill every chance they get, but always show up at the ribbon cutting ceremonies to take credit for projects the stimulus package created

I think that if voters are going to hold anything against the president and his economic stimulus package it should be that it didn't go far enough in terms of spending, as many economists have already called for a second bail-out.

Whether the Tea Partiers, Republicans or Independents like it or not, sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

"A big part of the Recovery Act has been about investing in that future," Obama said. "Yes it created jobs now. Yes, it created business opportunities now. But more importantly, it's laying the foundation for where we need to go."