America's Recovery: One Year Later
This time last year, our economy was in freefall – losing more than 700,000 jobs a month, cutting into Americans’ retirement savings, freezing lending to small businesses, and hurting families working to make ends meet.
Congress and President Obama took bold action with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a bill designed to create and save jobs, inject demand into the economy, and build our future prosperity on a firmer foundation.
Since it was signed into law, the Recovery Act has:
- Cut taxes for 95% of working Americans
- Provided $20 billion in loans to small businesses
- Extended COBRA and unemployment benefits
- Helped states to keep teachers, firefighters and police officers on the job
- Put Americans to work on more than 12,500 construction projects
- Invested in innovative technologies that will lay a foundation for long term economic success
The Recovery Act has already made a huge impact on our economy, bringing us back from the brink of a major depression. Our economy is growing at the fastest rate in six years, monthly job losses are 97% smaller than when President Bush left office, and we’ve seen millions of jobs created and saved in both the private and public sector.
But while our country is heading in the right direction, too many Americans are still out of work and too many of our families are struggling to make ends meet. Democrats are committed to putting Americans back to work and sustaining the recovery of our nation’s economy.
