CRITICS REMAIN

Although the economy regained growth, critics said that American people did not feel the recovery.

Millions of Americans are still in need of work and "millions more are still struggling to pay bills," Obama acknowledged.

Obama also said that current economic conditions don't "feel much like a recovery" to those who are still hurting.

The President's chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers said recently that the GDP growth is "a statistic recovery but a human recession."

Republicans argue that the stimulus plan has been a failure, given that unemployment remains at 9.7 percent, and they brand the program an example of bloated government and wasteful spending that taxpayers abhor.

"Taxpayers aren't getting their money's worth from the trillion- dollar 'stimulus' and struggling families and small businesses are rightly asking 'where are the jobs?'" said the top House Republican John Boehner.

The United States has lost an astounding 8.4 million jobs since this recession began in December 2007.

And the rising federal debt is another major issue that opponents target the Obama administration.

According to the 2011 fiscal budget plan that Obama proposed to the Congress earlier this month, the federal deficit in fiscal year 2010 ending in September will hit a record high of 1.56 trillion dollars.

But Obama made repeated references to how well, in his view, his government has done with the stimulus.

"There has never been a program of this scale, moved at this speed, that has been enacted as effectively and as transparently as the recovery act," Obama added. Referring to Vice President Joe Biden and the other top aides, Obama said, "This team has done an outstanding job."

Biden, who has led the stimulus implementation, took his own swipe at critics. "They're unwilling to step up," he said. "Well not us."

Obama said that the Recovery Act is on target to save or create another 1.5 million jobs in 2010.

"Our work is far from over," Obama said. He vowed his administration will do "everything in our power to turn this economy around."