Just over a year ago, thanks in part to your organizing, President Obama was able to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.

The Recovery Act wasn’t a silver bullet, but it’s very good policy. It cut taxes for 95% of working families to give them a leg up as they fight to get by. It invested in our nation’s infrastructure and clean energy. it gave tax breaks to small businesses to help hire workers, and it helped out state and local governments — including local police departments like the one in Englewood, Colorado, which was able to hire officers like Eddie B., whose story is below.

We’ve got a lot more work to do. But as many as 2.4 million Americans are working now who would otherwise be unemployed, and we’re breaking the back of the recession.

We put together a video explaining where we were just one year ago, and what the Recovery Act has done for our country. Watch it here.

In the three months prior to the Act, the nation lost 2.2 million jobs. The financial system was collapsing, and the “Great Recession” was being recognized for what it was — the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

But since the Act’s passage, Americans of all stripes have been able to get back to work. One example of what the Recovery Act made possible is the story of Eddie B., from Englewood, Colorado.

He graduated from police academy in 2009. Without the Recovery Act, he and his classmates would have had to wait for two years before being hired into the police department — but stimulus funds led to him being hired immediately. In Eddie’s words, “the President, with the Recovery Act, gave me the opportunity to serve my community and help the people I live with.”

The success of the Recovery Act is composed of millions of stories like Eddie’s — of folks getting to work who wouldn’t otherwise be in their jobs, families able to buy their first home because of the homeowner’s tax credit, and much more.

Please check out the video we put together, and pass it along to 5 friends:

http://my.barackobama.com/RecoveryVideo

Thank you,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America