President Barack Obama's $814 billion stimulus package has "by some measures" exceeded its goal of saving or creating millions of jobs, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said Thursday.
In its fifth quarterly report on the "Recovery Act" passed by Congress shortly after Obama took office in January 2009, the CEA said the package added 2.7 percent to third-quarter GDP growth and raised employment by 2.7 million to 3.7 million jobs.
"The report shows that the Act played a key role in changing the trajectory of the economy," the CEA said in a statement accompanying the report.
"Specifically, the Recovery Act added 2.7 percent to third quarter GDP growth and by some measures has exceeded the original goal of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010."
Democrats say the stimulus package and other measures taken by the Obama White House helped avert a second Great Depression.
Republicans, who won a major victory in recent congressional elections, call the country's 9.6 unemployment rate evidence that the stimulus package did not work.
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