The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the stimulus provided jobs to between 1.2 million and 2.8 million people during the first three months of this year.  The stimulus also raised GDP by as much as 4.2%.

Raised the level of real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7 percent and 4.2 percent

Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.5 percentage points

Increased the number of people employed by between 1.2 million and 2.8 million, and

Increased the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs by 1.8 million to 4.1 million compared with what those amounts would have been otherwise. (Increases in FTE jobs include shifts from part-time to full-time work or overtime and are thus generally larger than increases in the number of employed workers.)

You can read the full CBO post here.

The Obama administration estimates that almost all of the $700 Billion bailout will be recovered from the banks, the auto companies, the insurance company AIG, and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  A year ago the administration estimated that the bailout would cost almost $500 Billion.  Part of the bailout purchased bank stocks, which have gained in value since the economy started to recover and once sold off will make a profit.  Bank loans are starting to be paid off in full with interest, leading to more financial gains for the government program.  The government is now estimating the true cost of the bailout will only be about $87 Billion.  The government will soon sell 1.5 billion shares of it’s total 7.7 billion shares in Citigroup purchased in 2009 for $3.25 a share.  Shares in Citigroup are now currently trading for $4.67.  Around $11 Billion is expected to be made in profit from the sale of Citigroup shares.

The federal deficit and the total national debt will now be lower that previously expected because of the lower costs from the TARP bailout.  The administration says that they expect the cost could fall even further and possibly even completely pay for itself.  Even without further lower estimates the current cost seems to be well worth the price to stabilize the world’s financial markets and prevent a global depression.

A new BBC poll shows that the rest of the world is viewing the U.S. much more favorably since Barack Obama became president.  Under George Bush Russia and China had better positive ratings from the rest of the world than the U.S.  Now 40% of those polled had a positive view of the U.S., up from 28% when George Bush was president.  The EU had the highest positive ratings with 52%, followed by the UK (51%), the U.S. (40%), China (34%), Russia (30%), then Iran (15%).  Around 30,000 people were polled in 28 countries for the results.

The Obama administration is requiring all top government agencies to release information that has never been available to the public before.  Each government department is required to post three major collections of “high-value” information to the public.  The information will be available for easy access online.  Open government organizations are encouraged by the initiative.

One major piece of information that was previous unavailable for free is the the Medicare database.  The entire database can now be downloaded for free online by anyone.  Users can easily sort through the information by type of service provided and many other categories.

Previous administrations have released government information reluctantly and when they were forced to release information it was available only in hard copy form.  Information available online in easily sorted databases and spreadsheets makes the data much more usable and manageable.  Freely available information can be used to track government spending and provide ways to hold government agencies accountable by the public like never before.

The new information will be available on the government website data.gov.

The Obama administration set its target for reducing the energy used by the federal government by “28 percent by 2020.”  The U.S. government is the largest energy consumer in the United States and this reductions will not only help to reduce the countries contribution to climate change, but will also result in “$8 to $11 billion in avoided energy costs through 2020.”

President Obama said, “as the largest energy consumer in the United States, we have a responsibility to American citizens to reduce our energy use and become more efficient.”  “Our goal is to lower costs, reduce pollution, and shift Federal energy expenses away from oil and towards local, clean energy.”

The various agencies will be requires to measure their current energy and fuel use to become more energy efficient as well as switch to alternative energy sources such as wind and solar.  All of the information for the agencies and the changes they make will be available online as part of a new open government initiative by the Obama Administration.  You can read the full White House press release here.

The Obama administration met with the Secular Coalition for America in Washington, DC on Friday February 26.  The Secular Coalition for America represents a broad coalition of Atheist, Freethought, and Humanist organizations such as the American Atheists.

Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists, said “We are delighted that we will get the chance to speak to and to hear from the Obama administration at the briefing with the Secular Coalition for America tomorrow. We will not be seeking support for Atheism from the federal administration, because we know they must be neutral and because we are confident that our conclusions can compete and win in the marketplace of ideas, unaided by government. We seek an end to special rights for religious ideas and beliefs–in all regulations, laws, procedures, and pronouncements. The privileging of religiosity violates the First Amendment and good sense.”

The Obama administration has expressed a willingness to meet with all sides of the political and religious spectrum.

The U.S. District Court in Washington recently dismissed charges against Blackwater guards for a 2007 shooting incident.  The Blackwater guards allegedly opened fire on the streets of Baghdad killing 17 and wounding dozens more, including women and children.  The guards admitted evidence that shows wrongdoing in interviews given immediately after the incident.  The case was dismissed because the judge ruled the interviews were not admissible, even though they were routine interviews given to the State Department for this type of incident.

The Justice Department has filed an appeal to the court’s decision, but has not yet explained their reason for the appeal.  The Iraqi government has pressured the U.S. Government to seek the appeal because of the outrage expressed by the Iraqi people over the dismissal.  The dismissal enforced the view that the U.S. was not taking responsibility for its actions of misconduct during war.  Many in the State Department have expressed concern that the dismissal of the case could lead to increased instability in Iraq and roll back U.S. accomplishments in the country.

The Whitehouse.gov website reports the “nation’s fleet of wind plants grew by 39% last year alone.”  The industry was expected to lose approximately 50% of its plants and jobs during the year of 2008.  Because of stimulus spending the industry was able avoid a 50% decline.  They instead grew the green wind energy sector by 39%.

The White House website says, “America’s wind power fleet will avoid an estimated 62 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, equivalent to taking 10.5 million cars off the road.”  With further commitment to the clean energy the United States should see a direct benefit by adding green jobs and by reducing the impact the country has on climate change.

Early last year, before [ARRA], the industry anticipated that in 2009 wind power development might drop by as much as 50% from 2008 levels, with equivalent job losses.  The clear commitment by the President to create clean energy jobs and the swift implementation of ARRA incentives by the Administration in mid-summer reversed the situation. Recovery Act incentives spurred the growth of construction, operations and maintenance, and management jobs, helping the industry to save and create jobs in those sectors and shine as a bright spot in the economy.

With little notice due to the health care debate, President Obama signed a bill into law that not only funded the government for the coming year, but also advances civil liberties in several areas.  The bill “lifts 20-year ban on DC abortion funding, ends discriminatory school voucher program And defunds abstinence-only sex education programs.” The bill also included Al Franken’s anti-rape law that prohibits defense contractors from forcing their employees that are raped or sexually assaulted into permanent arbitration. Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her coworkers in Baghdad while working for Halliburton/KBR and was left with no legal recourse for the event because of an arbitration clause in her contract with her employer. The new law would prohibit government contracts going to any contractors that have such clauses in their contracts with their employees for any contracts worth more than a million dollars. The employees would then be allowed to sue in court.

Bill Lifts 20-Year Ban On DC Abortion Funding, Ends Discriminatory School Voucher Program And Defunds Abstinence-Only Sex Education Programs

WASHINGTON – President Obama today signed into law the Fiscal Year 2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill, legislation that includes several positive civil liberties provisions for the District of Columbia including removal of a ban on financial aid for low-income women to receive abortions, expanded benefits for domestic partnerships and an end to D.C.’s discriminatory school voucher program. The omnibus bill includes several major appropriations bills: Labor, Health and Human Services, Financial Services and State and Foreign Operations. The American Civil Liberties Union hailed the omnibus bill as a huge step forward for civil liberties in the District of Columbia.

The passage of the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill finally ends funding for the failed Community Based Abstinence Education program and instead directs significant resources into medically accurate, evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs. The Labor, Health and Human Services bill lifts a ban on federal funds for needle-exchange programs – which are crucial to public health and greatly reduce the spread of disease – across the country. The bill also legalizes the use of medical marijuana in D.C. by removing a federal ban on a referendum that was passed by an overwhelming majority of District voters in the 1990s.

“District of Columbia residents have a lot to be thankful for with the signing of this law,” said Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “These significant and welcome changes to D.C. law will help to bring the District’s education program and drug and reproductive policies in line with the majority of the country and Constitution. We are especially encouraged to see Congress and the president reject abstinence-only education which censors information, promotes gender stereotypes, marginalizes gay and lesbian youth and jeopardizes the well-being of young people. We hope that the rest of the country will follow suit.”

The ACLU has long sought an end to the D.C. abortion ban, arguing that the District of Columbia ought to have the right, like other states, to use its own local, non-federal revenue to provide abortion care to its low-income residents. The ACLU has also made the elimination of abstinence-only-until-marriage funding a priority and was pleased to see the provision included in the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill. Unfortunately, another provision included in the FY2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill preserves other abortion bans and fails to codify the global gag rule rescission that was offered by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and adopted by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“District of Columbia residents and their elected representatives can finally decide how to meet the needs of poor women in their communities,” said Vania Leveille, ACLU Legislative Counsel. “For 20-years, non-resident members of Congress have imposed their own ideology, morality or religious beliefs on the District, utterly disregarding the rights and needs of the local community. After more than a decade, Congress had put teenagers’ health above politics and ideology with abstinence-only education. The federal government has an obligation to support programs that provide accurate, age-appropriate information that can protect teenagers’ health and ability to achieve in school and beyond.”

[Read Article]

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the National Security Archive (NSA) sued the government to restore millions of emails that had gone “missing” during the Bush administration. The Bush administration was aware of the flaw in their email backup system that was allowing millions of emails to slip through the system suspiciously during sensitive points in the administration such as the run up to the Iraq war. The emails were previously thought to be unrecoverable because the last administration claimed there was no way to recover them.

CREW and the NSA lost in court for lack of standing, but the Obama administration is still seeking the recovery and release of these missing emails even though they are legally not required to. It’s a positive development towards transparency that is needed in the current administration. Unfortunately, it may take years to recover all of the information and currently the most time sensitive days and weeks of emails are in the process of being restored so we can understand the thinking behind the war in Iraq and other policy decisions.