On Feb 17, 2009 a newly elected President Obama worked with Congress to pass and sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — a sprawling $800 billion bill designed to awaken the moribund economy from the death spiral of a financial collapse that was costing American workers 750,000 jobs a month and millions of foreclosures annually.
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There were $237 billion in tax credits, cuts, and incentives for working Americans (targeting only those in the mid and lower income brackets), $155 billion in new healthcare spending to shore up existing programs and open new community clinics, $100 billion in education spending, $82 billion in aid to low income workers, $48 billion in new infrastructure and transportation support, $27 billion in clean energy services, and $14 billion in housing support in the new bill. After implementation the US economy rebounded from a catastrophic -8.9% GDP and we were on our way to 16 million new private sector jobs.
Today- eight years later.
On Feb, 17, 2017 new President Donald Trump has botched an attempt to keep Muslims from seven countries out of the USA (fully rejected by a US appeals court), insulted and alienated a media that had given him billions in free campaign advertising, and mismanaged the most incoherent transition team in modern US history.