Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration's heavily promoted "Recovery Summer," its June-July 2010 effort to highlight a surge in infrastructure projects funded by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
It's been anything but a celebration for the White House, beset by a painfully slow economic recovery and a national unemployment rate of 9.1%.
In fact, the people making the most noise about the anniversary have been Republicans in Congress. They're using it to remind Americans that a year after Obama trumpeted the projects that were going to lead to new jobs, more jobs are needed.
"It has been a year since Democrats proclaimed our economy would be entering into a 'Recovery Summer,'" said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee. "Today, unemployment remains at a staggering 9.1%, the economy is creeping along, and the American people are not enthusiastic about the prospects of recovery."
Asked about the dubious anniversary Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney defended the administration's economic record: 1 million private-sector jobs created in the past six months, more than 2 million in the past 17 months.
"The fact is that recovery is taking place. Growth is happening. It is not enough," Carney said. "I remind you that when we took office, the economy was in freefall. There was fear of a global depression. There was a contraction in the economy of greater than 6% quarterly. There was a loss of jobs at a pace of 700,000 a month.
"So the point being, when we remind people of where we were, is that while we are not where we want to be, we are in a better position now than we were in January of 2009 by far."
Source: http://content.usatoday.com
It's been anything but a celebration for the White House, beset by a painfully slow economic recovery and a national unemployment rate of 9.1%.
In fact, the people making the most noise about the anniversary have been Republicans in Congress. They're using it to remind Americans that a year after Obama trumpeted the projects that were going to lead to new jobs, more jobs are needed.
"It has been a year since Democrats proclaimed our economy would be entering into a 'Recovery Summer,'" said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee. "Today, unemployment remains at a staggering 9.1%, the economy is creeping along, and the American people are not enthusiastic about the prospects of recovery."
Asked about the dubious anniversary Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney defended the administration's economic record: 1 million private-sector jobs created in the past six months, more than 2 million in the past 17 months.
"The fact is that recovery is taking place. Growth is happening. It is not enough," Carney said. "I remind you that when we took office, the economy was in freefall. There was fear of a global depression. There was a contraction in the economy of greater than 6% quarterly. There was a loss of jobs at a pace of 700,000 a month.
"So the point being, when we remind people of where we were, is that while we are not where we want to be, we are in a better position now than we were in January of 2009 by far."
Source: http://content.usatoday.com
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