Obama signs stimulus bill in Denver

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DENVER - President Barack Obama returned to Colorado on Tuesday for the first time since his election and signed a huge stimulus package into law, using the state's leadership in renewable energy to highlight his goal of creating jobs by transforming the U.S. energy economy.
- Opponents of stimulus bill say it's not about stimulus

Obama said the sprawling legislation, which congressional Democrats pushed to passage last week over near-unanimous opposition from Republicans, would "set our economy on a firmer foundation."

Obama's first major piece of legislation, it's a $787 billion mix of tax cuts and one of the biggest public spending programs since World War II.

"I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems. Nor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around. But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs," Obama said.

Obama said his stimulus package won't end the recession. But he promised: "Today does mark the beginning of the end."

"There you go. It's done," he said after signing the bill with 10 pens on a desk.

The setting for the signing was the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, with solar panels on its roof, underscoring the investments the new law will make in "green" energy-related jobs. Workers in solar, wind and other renewable-energy industries joined Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the bill-signing ceremony.

Obama and Biden finished a tour of solar panel installation on Tuesday before he signed the bill.

Before Obama spoke, Biden delivered a speech at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, following remarks from Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. After he finished speaking, CEO of Namaste Solar, Blake Jones, spoke about the impact the plan would have for small business owners such as himself.

"Many of our projects have been on hold as a result of uncertainty and instability in capital markets. The stimulus bill contains provisions that will specifically address this issue," Jones told the crowd of 250 in the museum's atrium.

Obama, Biden and Jones took a walking tour of the solar panel installation at the Denver Museum of Nature of Science, prior to the signing. Namaste Solar is a Boulder-based company that grew from three employees to 60 over the last three years, and would have had to lay off as many as half its staff without the provisions in the stimulus plan.

After the signing, Jones told 9NEWS the experience didn't seem real to him.

"Reflecting back on it and I look forward to talking to my colleagues and hearing about their experiences, what it was like from their perspective, because it's still a blur in my head," Jones said.

Jones says the stimulus package will help him right away.

"We're probably going to be posting our first job opening in a long time immediately," Jones said. "We're going to be calling all of our customers, we're going to be calling everyone we know that finances solar projects, and we're going to see how quickly we can get those balls rolling again."

Biden and Obama arrived in Colorado on separate planes, which landed within minutes of one another at Buckley Air Force Base.

President Obama, flanked by Salazar, Colorado's former senator, deplaned from Air Force One just after 11:30 a.m. and were greeted by Ritter, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado).

"He's here for a reason. Denver is a place where people collaborate. We're not as partisan. Republicans and Democrats can reach across the aisle and work together. It's a place where, you know, when the settlers first came out here, we were settled not because we were so tough, but because we were together," Hickenlooper told 9NEWS.

Hickenlooper also has high hopes for the stimulus funds.

"It's unclear what the direct affects will be on the city budget. I'm hopeful that they'd be some, but they will be modest. The bottom line is government is not going to solve this economy. This stimulus bill is only the first step to encourage people all of us, our businesses our nonprofits, everyone, to step up and take responsibility," Hickelooper said.

About 250 clean energy business leaders and community stakeholders were in attendance at the private event.

Obama left Colorado just after 3 p.m. He went to Phoenix to talk about home foreclosures.

Last week, Obama hit four states in four days to talk up the plan. Obama and his family spent the President's Day weekend in their hometown of Chicago.

The visit to Denver is Obama's first as president, but he spent a great deal of time in Colorado as a candidate.

Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president at Invesco Field at Mile-High Stadium in August, and he gave a campaign speech to what would be his largest domestic crowd of the campaign in Denver in late October.

At that speech, some 100,000 people spilled out of Civic Center Park to hear Obama's address.

Obama last visited Colorado on Nov. 1, the Saturday before Election Day, where he spoke to a rally in Pueblo.

Obama went on to become the first Democrat since 1992 to win in Colorado, handily taking the state's nine electoral votes against Republican Sen. John McCain.

On Saturday, Obama celebrated the newly passed $787 billion economic stimulus bill as a "major milestone on our road to recovery." The bill passed Friday.

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the White House was open-minded about another stimulus effort. But he stressed that there were no plans in the works for one.

Meanwhile, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC raced to complete recovery plans they were due to submit as part of their deal to receive billions of dollars in government loans. It was not clear they would make Tuesday's deadline.

The two automakers have been living off a combined $13.4 billion in federal bailout loans. They must persuade the administration that they can remain viable. Detroit's third major automaker, Ford Motor Co., did not request government help.

With the economy dominating Obama's first weeks in office, the president on Wednesday will unveil another part of his recovery effort - a $50 billion plan to help stem foreclosures.

All the activity also is allowing Obama to get away from Washington, with its intense partisan wrangling, and be cheered by people who may benefit from the huge government intervention.

Obama planned to outline his plan to help struggling homeowners in a speech in Arizona, one of the states hardest hit by home foreclosures that are at the center of the nation's economic woes.

The $50 billion program was mentioned last week by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as part of a wide-ranging financial-sector rescue plan that could send $2 trillion coursing through the financial system. But details were not announced at the time.

Obama's announcement is expected to include details about how the administration plans to prod the mortgage industry to do more in modifying the terms of home loans so borrowers have lower monthly payments.

More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, an 81 percent increase from 2007, and analysts say that number could soar as high as 10 million in the coming years, depending on the severity of the recession.

As for Tuesday's stimulus package, it will pump money into highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects, health care, renewable energy development and conservation.

It includes a $400 tax break for most individual workers and $800 for couples, including those who do not earn enough to pay income taxes. It will distribute tens of billions of dollars to states so they can head off deep cuts and layoffs and will provide financial incentives for people to start buying again, from first homes to new cars to shoes and cereal. It also provides help to poor people and laid-off workers, with increased unemployment benefits and food stamps, and subsides for health insurance.

Separately, GM and Chrysler raced to finish restructuring plans to present to the federal government but seemed unlikely to complete deals with debtholders and union workers by the government-imposed deadline on Tuesday.

Gibbs, Obama's press secretary, told reporters aboard Air Force One that he wouldn't rule out bankruptcy for Detroit automakers. Gibbs said the administration looks forward to reviewing GM and Chrysler's restructuring plans. Gibbs said it is important for the economy to have a strong and viable auto industry and that it's up to automakers to make choices about what is most helpful to their recovery.

GM earlier received $9.4 billion in government loans and Chrysler $4 billion. GM picked up the second installment of its loans, $4 billion, on Tuesday, according to Gibbs.

The Obama team had weighed appointing a "car czar." But Sunday night, the White House instead announced a task force to oversee the companies' restructuring.

The back-to-back government moves to try to lift the economy from a crippling recession had been eagerly awaited by Wall Street. But with the programs now being put in place, investors seemed concerned the impact might not be fast enough or big enough and stocks tumbled on Tuesday to near their November lows.

To track the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, visit: Recovery.gov.

Obama says the Web site is for accountability and transparency.

There is a chart that breaks sown how all of the $787 billion has been allocated. Taxpayers who want more specifics can click on a link and read the entire bill themselves.

There is also a timeline which will be updated to show what money is going where and when.

One of the first key dates is March 3. Federal agencies have until then to begin reporting the use of their stimulus funds.

On May 15, detailed financial reports will be accessible on the Web site. Two months later, recipients of the federal funding are required to report what they are doing with the money.

Taxpayers are also invited to give their feedback about how the bill is affecting them, including what is working and what is not.