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Obama signs $787 billion stimulus bill
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DENVER -- Warning that its passage into law "does not mark the end of our economic troubles," President Obama on Tuesday signed the massive $787 billion stimulus package, a measure he called the most sweeping financial legislation enacted in the nation's history.
The stimulus is part of a three-pronged effort by the administration try to preserve or create 3.5 million jobs and arrest the nation's severe economic downturn.
Today, the president will appear in Phoenix, one of the cities hardest hit by the housing downturn, to roll out a proposal aimed at curbing home foreclosures. And last week, the administration outlined a plan to repair the nation's teetering financial system.
Skepticism on Wall Street persisted with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping nearly 300 points Tuesday. Yet the president cast the stimulus, the first major piece of legislation passed on his watch, as a crucial milestone. "I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems," he said. "Nor does it constitute all of what we're going to have to do to turn our economy around. But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs."
Obama signed the nearly 1,100-page bill at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. "There you go," he said upon finishing.
The White House staged the ceremony in Denver to underscore how the stimulus might help struggling cities recover. Unemployment in the Denver area is 6.3 percent, and home foreclosures numbered more than 1,000 in December. A state-by-state estimate issued by the White House on Tuesday predicted that the stimulus would produce or save 59,000 jobs in Colorado.
Even before the signing, administration officials refused to rule out the idea that Obama might return to Congress to seek another infusion of cash. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said, "The president is going to do what's necessary to grow this economy. But there are no particular plans at this point for a second stimulus package."
Obama said the bill would fund record investments in education, new energy research and new infrastructure that he says will lay the foundation for the nation's economic future. The bill includes a $400 tax break for most individual workers and $800 for married couples, and would extend to those who do not earn enough to pay income taxes. At the same time, the two-year bill expands social safety net programs, including food stamp and child nutrition programs. There are also increased unemployment benefits and health care access for those thrown out of work.
Said Obama: "We have done more in 30 days to advance the cause of health care reform than this country has done in an entire decade."
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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