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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Obama's bailout gets nod

By: Liz Sidoti

Posted: 02/18/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

DENVER -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a massive $787-billion package to revive the economy, saying the measure represented the "essential work of keeping the American dream alive in our time."

The stimulus plan of spending programs and tax cuts is at the heart of Obama's effort to turn the economy back into a job-creating machine. It comes with a huge price tag for taxpayers and lingering doubts about whether the plan's results will match all the lofty promises that its supporters have made.

Obama signed the bill in Denver, the city where he accepted his party's presidential nomination last summer and a leader in the so-called "green" clean energy jobs that the legislation supports. The president now turns his attention to a plan to help struggling homeowners who are trying to fend off foreclosure.

"I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic troubles," Obama said before signing the legislation. "Nor does it constitute all of what we are going to have to do to turn our economy around. But today does mark the beginning of the end."

Meanwhile, the White House isn't ruling out a second economic plan, although none is in the works right now, spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.

The legislation is the most sweeping economic overhaul plan put forth in decades.

It pumps money into infrastructure projects, health care, renewable energy development and conservation, with twin goals of short-term job production and longer-term economic viability.

There's a $400 tax break for most individual workers and $800 for couples, including those who do not earn enough to pay income taxes.

-- The Canadian Press

Hard numbers

Price tag for stimulus bill: $787 billion

Tax break for individual workers: $400

Tax break for couples: $800

Unemployment rate: 7.6 per cent

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 18, 2009 A3

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