November 24, 2010
(Reuters) - The massive U.S. stimulus package, widely panned by voters, injected life into the otherwise-sluggish economy between July and September, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act put between 1.4 million and 3.6 million to work in the third quarter of this year, a time when more than 15 million Americans were unemployed, CBO said.
It also boosted national output by between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent during that time, the CBO said.
The CBO's estimates have consistently shown that the $814 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, construction spending and enhanced safety-net provisions has blunted the impact of the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s.
(interesting note) Direct spending on highway construction, water-system upgrades and energy efficiency were among the most effective, the CBO said, while
tax breaks for businesses and higher-income people cost more in lost revenues than they made up for in increased economic activity.read:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/11/24/business/business-us-usa-economy-stimulus.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=print