One year ago today,  President Obama signed into law the $787 billion dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The bill was designed to do 3 things.

1. Give Tax Cuts to 95% of working Americans and Small Businesses to encourage growth
2. Fully fund aid programs like unemployment insurance, food stamps, and Medicaid for the less fortunate.  Most of this money was given directly to the states to administer as they saw best.
3. Last, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act began a medium term transformation of American Industry toward the 21st century, by including strong and competitive measures to fund the development of Cleaner Energy, Transportation and Infrastructure jobs.  This includes measures to make all of our country’s systems – from our electrical  grids to how we store medical records to our school’s emphasis on student achievement in math and science – smarter.

Without a doubt, the highly controversial bill has done an incredible job of preventing a second Great Depression.   The Stimulus has created or saved over 2 million jobs across the country – from public jobs like teachers, police, and firefighters; to private jobs like engineers and construction contractors – and over the next year is expected to save or create an additional 1.5 million jobs.

Not only has the effect from the Stimulus been immediate and substantial, but no other government program of any size has been done faster or with more transparency.  Every dime of spent or awarded in the Stimulus can be tracked on Recovery.gov

Using the figures available there,  Missouri’s 9th District has received over $341 million dollars so far and in the last quarter of 2009 added 313 jobs.

But, as we all remember, not everyone thought that the stimulus would work. The GOP,  the party of Gridlock,  Obstruction,  and Paralysis, fought hard for a bill laden down with tax cuts that aren’t as effective in creating jobs.   Not only did they demand more of the same policies that helped cause this, but not a single Republican voted for the Stimulus.

That hasn’t stopped hypocrites like Blaine Luetkemeyer from taking the credit for how well it’s worked.  From a Think Progress’ report:

Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) Hailed Education Benefits Of Recovery Package As “What The Economy Needs.” According to KTVO-TV, “Luetkemeyer said the project is considered ‘shovel ready’ and that’s what the economy needs. President Darrell Krueger and Luetkemeyer discussed the educational benefits of the economic recovery package.” [KTVO-TV, 2/17/09]

-Congressman Luetkemeyer Voted Against The Recovery Package Twice [Roll Call Vote #46; Roll Call Vote #70]

You can tell Congressman Luetkemeyer how you feel about him being for the Stimulus, after he was against it right here.

He’s one of 110 GOP Congressmen who voted no on the Stimulus but have taken credit for it in their districts.

The larger issue is this – The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been and continues to be a great success story.  It’s staved off economic depression, created and saved millions of jobs,  and begun to make the nation more competitive for the next decade of growth.  We’ve gone from  contracting at 6% GDP to growing at 6% GDP.  And the party of “No” has decried it every step of the way.

Popularity: 8% [?]