Obama's Economic Recovery Plan
President Barack Obama has signed a bill which he hopes will get the United States economy moving again. At a ceremony in Denver, Colorado Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). About 787 billion dollars will be pumped into the economy. ARRA is to fight the worst American economic disaster since the Great Depression. The President said that the new law is not the end of the nation's economic problems but it is the beginning of what the country has to do.
The new law will create new projects that will give millions of Americans work. Obama said about 400,000 workers will be needed to rebuild bridges, roads and dams. A high speed Internet connection will be built for those people who do not have access yet.
He has also announced giving money to new, "green" jobs. Companies that provide government offices or schools with renewable clean energy will get more money.
About 100 billion dollars will be spent on education. Some states have said that they would not spend so much money on education and fire thousands of teachers. The new law will keep teachers in the classes. There is also money for kindergartens and pre-school education.
About 8 million homeowners, who do not have the money to pay for their rising mortgages, will get about 75 billion dollars so that they can stay in their homes.
It will take a few months until Americans can feel the effects of the new law. Obama warned that there will be setbacks on the way to economic recovery but insisted that if Americans work hard they will overcome these economic troubles.
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Words
- access = to have something
- announce = to say officially
- bill = a written suggestion for a new law
- billion = a thousand million
- ceremony = an important event
- disaster = here: very bad situation
- economy =the system in which a country's goods are produced and sold
- effect = result
- fire = to force someone to leave their job
- government = the people who rule a country
- Great Depression = the problems that followed the Wall Street crash of 1929. In the 1930s banks and factories had to close and millions of people lost their jobs.
- high speed = fast
- homeowner = people who have their own houses
- insist = to say very clearly
- mortgage = when you buy money from a bank to buy a house and pay it back over a period of many years
- overcome = to win against or defeat something
- pre-school = before the age of going to school
- provide = give, supply
- rebuild = build again
- Recovery and Reinvestment = program that will spend money to help and invest in the economy
- recovery = when something gets better
- renewable = energy forms that can be used over and over again
- rise = to go up
- setback = problems on the way to a better economy
- sign = to put your name on a document
- troubles = bad times