Overview of LawHelped jump start the economy and prevent a depression with a $787 billion stimulus package allocated 39% towards tax breaks primarily for the middle class and business, and 61% towards investments primarily in infrastructure, education, and health care.2009 Stimulus Bill Benefits & Positives| Date | Positive Result\Benefit | Rank | |
|---|
| 04/01/09 | Approximately 2.7 million jobs added to US payrolls and unemployment rate kept 1½ percentage points lower due to Stimulus spending | | |
| 04/01/09 | Deeper recession or depression averted in 2009 and beyond with the help of stimulus bill provisions | | |
| 02/17/09 | $48.1 billion in investments for highway, bridge, high-speed rail & other transportation projects | | |
| 02/17/09 | $100 billion in education aid to prevent lay-offs, modernize schools, award Pell grants and help low income children & special education programs | | |
| 02/17/09 | $155 billion in health care assistance for the poor & unemployed primarily for Medicaid, health information technology and insurance premium subsidies | | |
| 02/17/09 | $70 billion in tax relief for middle class workers by patching the Alternative Minimum Tax for one year | | |
| 02/17/09 | $82.2 billion in aid for low income workers, unemployed and retirees (including job training) | | |
| 02/17/09 | Tax credit of $400 per worker ($800 per couple) for middle income workers for 2009 & 2010 totaling $116 billion | | |
| 02/17/09 | 2010 real GDP increased by about 3.4% due to stimulus spending | | |
Five years ago Monday, President Barack Obama visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, his $800 billion stimulus bill. At the time, the U.S. economy was losing 800,000 jobs a month. In the fourth quarter of 2008, it had contracted at an 8% annual rate, a Depression-level free fall. We never spent all that much money on President Obama’s stimulus, and now we're spending almost nothing on it, and that's a shame, according to Paul Krugman. The most the nation ever spent on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which passed in 2009, amounted to 1.6 percent of the economy, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist wrote in a blog post Friday. And now most of the stimulus spending under that law is gone, Krugman noted. Apparently that wasn't enough Obama praise for Morales, who requested more: "What about President Obama? What can you say, a positive that we don't often hear?" President Barack Obama on Thursday called for spending at least $13 billion to launch a "new era" of high-speed passenger rail transportation, sparking competition among states and providing a potentially rich new market for rail equipment makers.
Videos on 2009 Stimulus Bill |  | Thu Oct 31, 2013
More than 47 million Americans rely on food stamps. Starting Friday a good chunk of their benefits will... |
|  | Mon Feb 23, 2009
President Barack Obama told the nation's governors Monday that the administration is quickly releasing... |
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