How many jobs did Obama save?

The White House released a report on Monday saying that President Obama's economic recovery plans may have created 250,000 education jobs. The administration is pushing back against critics who say the economic stimulus did no good, and saying it's on track to reach the goal of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs. How many jobs has the stimulus really saved?

Good news for the White House: A quarter-million education jobs —not bad, said Derek Thompson in The Atlantic. Those jobs wouldn't exist if the stimulus money hadn't "allowed states to restore much of their education budget shortfalls for 2009 and '10." Another report last week said the stimulus saved or created 30,000 jobs with private infrastructure builders.

250,000 Education Jobs: Good News for White House

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It's too early to count stimulus jobs: Thirty thousand is a "puny number," said the San Francisco Chronicle in an editorial, and it "has both Democrats and Republicans in full spin mode to present the figure in the best or worst possible light." But we're talking about "a sliver of a slice"—just 2 percent of the huge program—so we'll have to wait to see whether the stimulus will make the jobless recovery less painful.

A too-early tally on stimulus jobs

The stimulus won't be enough: Let's be realistic, said Don Miller in Money Morning. "The worst recession since the Great Depression has already eliminated 7.2 million jobs, and analysts figure 750,000 more jobs could disappear over the next six months." Without a second stimulus, President Obama doesn't have a realistic shot at creating enough jobs to "preserve the fledgling recovery."

Will high unemployment strangle the recovery?

The numbers don't lie: "There is no 'economic recovery' taking place in the U.S.," said Jeff Nielsen in Seeking Alpha. "This year is much worse than last year—and 2010 will be much worse still. The only thing currently preventing the debt-implosion of the U.S. economy is the Bernanke printing press," not the Obama stimulus.

Greater Depression for the U.S. rebuts 'recovery' talk