It’s a done deal. Less than a month into his new administration, President Barack Obama signed that massive and much fought-over $787 billion economic stimulus bill in Denver, Colorado today. President Obama reportedly used as many as 10 different pens to sign the measure.
Earlier, the media event was on the verge of becoming bogged down in speeches, when President Obama finally stepped to the mike. Perhaps, the White House should have stuck with a reported original plan of having the president sign the bill yesterday, Presidents Day; and then go on the road today and the rest of the week promoting it in various cities across the nation.
President Obama says the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is the most sweeping piece of legislation of its kind in our history: “What makes this recovery plan so important is not just that it will create or save 3½ million jobs over the next two years, including nearly 60,000 in Colorado. It’s that we are putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done in critical areas that have been neglected for too long, work that will bring real and lasting change for generations to come.”
Again, the president spoke about the accountability of the bill: “With a recovery package of this scale comes a responsibility to assure every taxpayer that we are being careful with the money they work so hard to earn. That’s why I am assigning a team of managers to ensure that the precious dollars we have invested are being spent wisely and well. We will hold the governors and local officials who receive money to the same high standards. And we expect you, the American people, to hold us accountable for the results. That is why we have created Recovery.gov, so every American can go online and see how their money is being spent.”
That website is up and running today.
