By: Kim Chipman

President Barack Obama vowed to speed up spending of federal money on public works projects and said signs of a U.S. economic recovery have helped lead to less “fear” in financial markets.

Obama made the comments as his administration announced that stimulus spending on projects at health centers, national parks, airports and other federal facilities to create or save more jobs will accelerate during the next few months.

“We’re still in the middle of a very deep recession,” the president said at the White House today before meeting with his Cabinet. He said there were signs the economy may be headed toward a recovery and that “we’re seeing a reduction in the fear that gripped the market just a few months ago.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen 38.8 percent since March 9, with three straight weekly advances. The index slipped 0.1 percent today.

Obama’s focus on a “summer of accelerated Recovery Act activity” follows a Labor Department report June 5 showing that the unemployment rate last month climbed to 9.4 percent, highest in almost 26 years. The U.S. lost 345,000 jobs last month, fewer than economists forecast. The economy has lost about 2.182 million jobs since Obama took office, government figures show.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden announced 10 projects aimed at creating or saving more than 600,000 jobs through stepped-up spending of the $787 billion stimulus measure passed by Congress in mid-February. Republican lawmakers have criticized the legislation, saying it hasn’t lived up to administration promises.

‘Rosy Predictions’

“Nearly four months later unemployment has continued to climb and none of their rosy predictions have come true,” House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said in an e-mailed statement. “Wasting more money that the government doesn’t have” and borrowing from China and the Middle East “is the wrong choice.”

In the first 100 days since the stimulus was signed into law, the administration says that more than $135 billion, or 17 percent, of the stimulus money has been obligated to projects and estimates 150,000 jobs have been created or saved. The White House says it wants to create or save four times as many jobs during the next phase of spending.

Part of Strategy

Jared Bernstein, Biden’s chief economic adviser, said the acceleration of stimulus spending over the U.S. summer months -- prime season for construction work -- was long-planned as part of the administration’s strategy.

He said the unemployment rate, while greater than initial administration projections, would have been as much as 2 percentage points higher without the stimulus spending and tax cuts.

Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co. are among companies that may benefit from federal construction contracts for highways and other federal public works such as interstate highway repaving and improvements at 98 airports. Other companies that may benefit from the stimulus spending include homebuilders such as NVR Inc. and Pulte Homes Inc., and power-tool maker Black & Decker Corp.

Among the projects outlined by the administration were expanding services at 1,129 health centers, funding 135,000 jobs for teachers and other school personnel, making improvements at 90 veterans’ medical centers and starting work on 200 new waste and water systems in rural areas.

Funding will also go to hiring or retaining about 5,000 law enforcement officers, creating 125,000 summer jobs for young people and initiating 2,300 construction and rehabilitation projects at military facilities across the nation, the administration said.

DISCLAIMER: This article is the copyright of Cleveland365.com, and/or its author, and may be redistributed provided that the article remains intact, with this copyright message clearly visible. No articles may under any circumstances be resold or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from Cleveland365.com.