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President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA, into law one year ago today, on February 17, 2009. This signature piece of legislation has played a critical role in preventing another Great Depression. It included a mixture of tax cuts for businesses and families, infrastructure building and green investments, aids for states and localities, and help for those in need. It gave the economy the jumpstart it needed this past year, and it will continue to pump necessary money into the economy for the year to come.
The package’s effects are already quite clear with $300 billion disbursed so far, less than half of the total package. The economy expanded at an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 5.7 percent last quarter, and much of the growth is attributed to the Recovery Act. This is the fastest growth rate since the third quarter of 2003. The recovery package has already saved or created approximately 1.8 million jobs nationwide and will continue to create more jobs as infrastructure projects ramp up in the next year.
Yet the recession proved to be far worse than originally thought when Congress passed the Recovery Act. Approximately 8.4 million Americans have lost their jobs in the recession so far, and we would need to create 350,000 jobs per month for the next two years to fill this massive hole left by the worst downturn in decades.
We cannot take our eye off the ball as the economy turns around, and we must maintain current economic growth and translate that into durable job growth in the coming months. This means continued efforts by the federal government to build on the success of ARRA. The Center for American Progress has advocated for continued infrastructure investment and aid to state and local governments, in addition to job creation initiatives such as expanding national service programs.
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For more information on ARRA and job creation, see: