WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama is heading to Florida to tout the benefits of the massive economic stimulus bill he signed shortly after taking office seven years ago.
Obama pumped more than $760 billion into a then-slumping economy beginning in early 2009 in a frantic effort to halt the worst economic downturn in generations. It was an unsettling period for many Americans as hundreds of thousands of jobs disappeared, unemployment climbed into double digits and home values plummeted.
Obama will argue during a stop in Jacksonville on Friday that the country is on a more solid footing because of this and other “tough choices” he made early in his first term.
“I think by all measures … there’s no denying that the American people and our nation are in much better condition than it was seven years ago,” said Obama’s spokesman, Josh Earnest.
Just a few Republican senators voted for the Recovery Act. Most GOP lawmakers opposed the measure and argue that taxpayers got too little in return on such a sizable investment. They would often taunt the administration by repeatedly asking, “Where are the jobs?”