For example, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the economic stimulus Obama signed into law added — in the 4th quarter of 2009 — between 1 million and 2 million employed workers and boosted the GDP between 1.5% to 3.5% higher than it would have been without the stimulus.<\/p>\n
In addition, a more recent CBO study — for the second quarter of 2011 — found that the stimulus raised real GDP between 0.8% and 2.5% and lowered the unemployment rate between 0.5 and 1.6 percentage points, compared with what would have occurred without it.<\/p>\n
And another analysis, by economists Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi, estimated that the stimulus raised 2010 real GDP by 3.4%, held the unemployment rate about 1.5 percentage points lower, and added nearly 2.7 jobs to U.S. payrolls.<\/p>\n
Looking solely at quarterly Gross Domestic Product, its gone from -6.7% in the first quarter of 2009 and -0.7% in the second quarter of 09, to positive territory ever since — including 2.8% the past quarter.<\/p>\n
And looking at monthly payroll statistics, the numbers have gone from a loss of 818,000 jobs in Jan. 2009 — when Obama took office — to 16-straight months of positive job growth, including a preliminary gain of 243,000 jobs in Jan. 2012.<\/p>\n
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