All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

New government figures show the economy grew 3.5% this summer, the first increase in a year and a sign that the recession is at an end. But there are other signs that this may be a jobless recovery.

The Obama administration is saying its economic stimulus and recovery packages have saved close to a million jobs. But the creation of new jobs has lagged.

"The great American job creation machine simply hasn't been generating enough jobs to absorb or offset what was really the greatest, deepest recession since the Great Depression," said Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

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President Obama announced Monday that his administration is ramping up the pace at which funds from the $787 billion economic stimulus package are spent and predicted that the legislation will save or create 600,000 jobs in the next 100 days.

The bill will mean "keeping teachers in the classroom, cops on the streets, providing summer jobs for youth that are particularly hard-hit in this job market, breaking ground on hundreds of new projects, all across the country, in clean energy and transportation and so on," he said.

The president said last month that the bill had saved or created 150,000 jobs in its first 100 days, a claim met with criticism from Republicans. Citing a May New York Times report that less than 6 percent of the money had been paid out – most of it in the form of social service payments to states – the Republican National Committee argued that the Recovery Act had thus far "produced waste and fraud, but no jobs."

The president insisted Monday, however, that the administration has "done more than ever, faster than ever, more responsibility than ever, to get the gears of the economy moving again."

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President Obama told state legislators in Washington, DC today that Recovery Act funds must be spent with transparency and accountability.

To help ensure that only programs that stimulate the economy are funded through the act, Mr. Obama announced that he had issued a directive for new federal guidelines that explain what constitutes an acceptable use of taxpayer dollars.

"It's the most sweeping recovery plan in our nation's history, and with a plan of such size comes an obligation to be vigilant with every dime we spend" Mr. Obama explained. "That will require all of us -- me, Joe, each of you -- to hold yourselves accountable. It will require a new level of transparency in how we invest taxpayer dollars."

Mr. Obama also announced to the National Conference of State Legislatures that requests from lobbyists to talk to members of his administration about Recovery Act projects would be posted on the Internet. If a meeting does take place, an account of what transpired will also be posted on Recovery.gov, Mr. Obama said.

"Decisions about how Recovery money will be spent will be based on the merits," said Mr. Obama, who repeated the statement for emphasis. "They will not be made as a way of doing favors for lobbyists."

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