Happy birthday

WASHINGTON-A year has passed since President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus plan into law. About half of the funds have been spent and questions hang in the air about what the money has in fact accomplished.

The administration is still working to salvage the stimulus' legacy; it points to numbers from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showing that the program has created or saved about 2 million jobs, and is on track to expand that number to 3.5 million by the end of the year. The St. Petersburg Times' fact-checking blog, PolitiFact, argues those numbers are a big ballpark: "Economists can't say for sure what would have happened if the stimulus had not passed, and whether those who got jobs through the stimulus would otherwise be unemployed."

Only 6 percent of Americans think the stimulus has created jobs, according to a recent poll by CBS and The New York Times, though 41 percent do expect it to create jobs eventually. Top members of the administration, led by Vice President Joe Biden, who has been the administration's point man on the project, are visiting 35 communities across the country this week in a campaign to promote the work the stimulus has done.

The White House faces the most visible argument against the stimulus' success right now in jobs numbers. Unemployment remains at a 26-year high of 9.7 percent. Members of the Obama administration predicted a year ago that, thanks to the stimulus, unemployment would peak at 8 percent. Though job losses have slowed, 3 million jobs have evaporated since the stimulus' birth.

Republicans have attacked the wasteful spending in the stimulus. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a well-known opponent of earmarks, has issued two reports highlighting stimulus projects, including one where nearly $1 million in counterterrorism funds were awarded to a dinner cruise company, Entertainment Cruises. The company's vice president, Gary Frommelt, told The Boston Globe, "We feel that we're really a low threat for a terrorist incident. But the stimulus was a nice perk." The GOP also argues that the stimulus as a whole has only created a bigger public sector without boosting private employers.

Democrats have roasted Republicans for voting against the measure and then taking credit for stimulus projects. They've focused attention on one top GOP leader in the House, Eric Cantor, who has supported a stimulus-funded high-speed rail project, which would link Richmond to Washington in his home state of Virginia, even while he continues to lambaste the stimulus.

Meanwhile, Congress is mulling passing another stimulus called by another name: a "jobs bill." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid derailed the Senate's efforts on such a bill last week, but he has proposed another smaller $15 billion version, which is currently in the works.