Stimulus boosted economy but fell short on jobs

President Obama’s stimulus led to between 1.3 million and 3.3 million jobs at its peak last year, according to the latest account by Congress’s chief scorekeeper, placing somewhere between a little bit and way short of the administration’s goal of sustaining 3.5 million jobs.

The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that the stimulus did boost the economy, and continues to do so, but at an ever-diminished pace now that most of the spending has slackened, more than two years after the Recovery Act was passed.

Meanwhile the stimulus price tag ticked down slightly, to $825 billion, which is $6 billion than the last estimate in May — though still well above the $787 billion CBO initially said it would cost initially.

CBO uses economic modeling to make its calculations, based on past history of government spending.

The administration says its own figures back up its 3.5 million estimate, though they have acknowledged the stimulus has not reduced the unemployment rate to the level they had projected. President Obama has said the recession turned out to be deeper than he had imagined.

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