“If we’re honest, part of the controversy also is that despite the extraordinary work that has been done through the Recovery Act, millions of Americans are still without jobs,” Mr. Obama said. “Millions more are struggling to make ends meet. So it doesn’t feel like much of a recovery yet. I understand that.”

(From http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/us/politics/18obama.html)

The economy has indeed lost jobs on Mr. Obama’s watch, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently calculated that the recovery package, formally called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, had saved or created between 900,000 and 2.3 million jobs.

The economy has shed some three million jobs over the past year, but it would have lost closer to five million without stimulus,” said Mark Zandi, “The economy is still struggling, but it would have been much worse without stimulus.”

But how efficient was it? putting 800 billion dollars into the economy may have helped, but could we have spent it better? Some people say yes.

Money is just green paper. Putting more money into the econom without increasing production will just lead to inflation. Likewise with benefit packages: giving people money won't help revitalize the economy.

But it will help the person.

Read more about it.