Obama, GOP take stimulus debate online

WASHINGTON -- The money has largely been spent, but as President Obama's $825 billion economic stimulus turns 3 years old today, its substantial, yet still inadequate impact remains the subject of sharp debate.

The White House, the Obama re-election campaign and liberal allies all point to a surging economy, more than 3 million new jobs and an unemployment rate that has finally dropped back near the rate Obama inherited.

Republican presidential candidates and congressional leaders decry high poverty rates and food stamp caseloads, earnings that are not keeping pace with inflation and a declining percentage of Americans in the workforce.

As the two sides prepare for a presidential campaign that's likely to be won or lost on the economy, what's changed is … the economy. Its rebound has prompted Obama to focus less on the recession he inherited and more on the rebound taking shape.

"The month I took office, we were losing 750,000 (jobs) a month. Last month, we created 250,000. That's a million-job swing," Obama said Thursday at a fundraiser in Corona del Mar, Calif. "And that's representative of the progress that the economy has made."

Republicans respond that the "recovery" in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has yet to materialize, leading to three straight years of unemployment rates above 8% and soaring budget deficits.

"At the signing of the 'stimulus' three years ago, President Obama said he wanted to be held accountable for the results of his spending binge," House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday. "Today, there's no denying the fact that his 'stimulus' policies not only failed, they made things worse."

The rhetoric increasingly is finding its way into charts and videos on the Internet. A simple bar chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows monthly job creation graces the Obama campaign's website, is used in online advertising and has become the campaign's most shared item on Facebook.

On the other side, the House Republican Study Committee used a Labor Department chart on declining labor force participation in a release Thursday titled, "Where Are the Jobs?"

On Friday, the Obama campaign and Republican National Committee will release state-by-state reports touting their versions of events. The campaign will detail the impact of Obama's policies on manufacturing. The Republicans will focus on states' economies.

The two sides even have produced Web videos claiming that the stimulus succeeded or failed, thanks to the liberal Center for American Progress and the conservative Reason Foundation.

Why the completely different evaluations? Politics, of course. And this: While most economists acknowledge the package of infrastructure spending, aid to states and $300 billion in tax cuts signed by Obama on Feb. 17, 2009, helped stop the bleeding from the worst recession in more than 70 years, it fell short of supporters' predictions.

The Obama team dug itself a hole before it even got the keys to the White House. In January 2009, it released a report that said its stimulus package would hold unemployment below 8%. By October, it hit 10%.

By the time he signed the stimulus, Obama was exhibiting his trademark caution. "None of this will be easy. The road to recovery will not be straight," he said in Denver. "We will make progress, and there may be some slippage along the way … There will be hazards and reverses."