Congressman Cohen Hails President Obama's Signing of American Recovery and Reinvestme

Today, President Obama signed into law his historic plan to create and save 3.5 million jobs and start to get the American economy back on track. No mission is more critical to the American people, and the President and Congress got this done just three weeks after his inauguration.

President Obama’s job creation package passed by Congress will rebuild America, making us more globally competitive and energy independent, and transforming our economy for long-term growth. This package provides one of the largest tax cuts in history for close to 95 percent of American workers.

This economic recovery plan will create American jobs now and lay a foundation for long-term growth through clean energy, innovation and education. The legislation also has unprecedented accountability and transparency measures to help ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively – including no earmarked projects and a new recovery.gov website allowing Americans to track the investments.

America is facing an economic crisis greater than any since the Great Depression, with a staggering 3.6 million American jobs lost in the last 13 months and an unemployment rate in Tennessee that has climbed to 7.9 percent. As the President works to address the mortgage foreclosure crisis and get credit flowing in our financial system, this plan will turn our economy around and bring jobs, relief and hope for Tennesseans.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will create jobs and build our economy by:

• Creating or saving 70,000 jobs here in Tennessee over the next two years;
• Providing a Making Work Pay tax cut of up to $800 for as many as 2,370,000 workers and their families, designed to start paying out immediately into workers’ paychecks, as well as tax cuts to spur businesses large and small;
• Transforming our economy with clean, efficient, American energy and innovation and technology that will create more than 1 million jobs;
• Lowering health care costs and improving care by computerizing medical records, which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and helping those who cannot afford health care in these tough times;
• Modernizing roads and bridges to create jobs with an extra $701,516,776 here in Tennessee along with other critical infrastructure like high-speed rail, the boldest investment since the creation of the interstate highway system a half century ago;
• Education for the 21st Century, modernizing schools and making college more affordable with improved Pell Grants for the 139,634 Pell Grant recipients here in Tennessee and a higher education tax credit for 87,000 students in our state;
• Helping workers hurt by the economy, including 241,200 of Tennesseans that are out of work, those who have lost their health care, and seniors; and
• Saving the jobs of teachers, police officers, health care workers, and protecting the vital services they provide.

Congressman Cohen added, “It will take time to turn this economy around, but we are confident that this package will make our economy stronger and more resilient. This jobs and recovery plan will create or save an estimated 70,000 jobs in Tennessee by the end of 2010, according to the White House. Congress will continue to work with the President to get credit flowing again, keep more Americans from losing their homes, and bring common sense to Wall Street so that our economic recovery is more effective and sustained. Americans have always come together in the face of challenges and we will once again with the swift and bold leadership of President Obama.”

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Contact:
Marilyn Dillihay, Press Secretary, 202-225-3265
Charlie Gerber, Communications Assistant, 202-225-3265