THE BRIEFING ROOM * THE BLOG
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
With the stroke of a pen (update: photo)
Here's some news: even before money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is available to start stimulating the economy, the President's signature on the act may itself be able to start saving jobs.Though it could be a matter of weeks or months before funds from the act actually reach businesses and local governments, the Chairman and CEO of Caterpillar said today that if ARRA passes, his company would be able to rehire some of the 20,000 employees it has laid off in the last few weeks.
President Obama announced the news today in front of a Virginia road construction project that had to stop short because funds ran out -- but is precisely the kind of project the recovery act could get going again.
"Where we are standing, that could mean hundreds of construction jobs," he said. "And the benefits of jobs we create directly will multiply across the economy."
Read the President's full remarks, and see the impact the recovery plan will have on Virginia.
[[[Image:P021109PS-0201w_Va_Infrastructure.jpg|333px|President]] Obama and Gov. Kaine in Virginia ]
White House photo 2/11/09 by Pete Souza
MD5: 2c45e75eb977f84de7fe2f2f308a7e20 Original URL: http://whitehouse.gov/blog_post/with_the_stroke_of_a_pen/