THE RECOVERY ACT ONE YEAR LATER 17FEB10

If you are interested in some truth about the recession and recovery here it is, click the header to go the the actual site with links to government reports, etc.



Just over a year ago, thanks in part to your organizing, President Obama was able to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.

The Recovery Act wasn't a silver bullet, but it's very good policy. It cut taxes for 95% of working families to give them a leg up as they fight to get by. It invested in our nation's infrastructure and clean energy. it gave tax breaks to small businesses to help hire workers, and it helped out state and local governments -- including local police departments like the one in Englewood, Colorado, which was able to hire officers like Eddie B., whose story is below.

We've got a lot more work to do. But as many as 2.4 million Americans are working now who would otherwise be unemployed, and we're breaking the back of the recession.

In the three months prior to the Act, the nation lost 2.2 million jobs. The financial system was collapsing, and the "Great Recession" was being recognized for what it was -- the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

But since the Act's passage, Americans of all stripes have been able to get back to work. One example of what the Recovery Act made possible is the story of Eddie B., from Englewood, Colorado.

He graduated from police academy in 2009. Without the Recovery Act, he and his classmates would have had to wait for two years before being hired into the police department -- but stimulus funds led to him being hired immediately. In Eddie's words, "the President, with the Recovery Act, gave me the opportunity to serve my community and help the people I live with."

• Jeanne S. is a middle school teacher who works at a public school in Phoenix, Arizona. Last spring, she and other teachers were told that the school might not be able to afford to keep them on any longer. Yet money from the Recovery Act allowed her and other teachers to keep their jobs, and Jeanne says that they are grateful for the opportunity to keep teaching thanks to the Recovery Act.

The success of the Recovery Act is composed of millions of stories like Eddie's -- of folks getting to work who wouldn't otherwise be in their jobs, families able to buy their first home because of the homeowner's tax credit, and much more.