Is Obama's stimulus paying off?

By Steve Holland - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As President Barack Obama marked 100 days since his $787 billion (493 billion pounds) economic stimulus was set in motion, Democrats and Republicans painted starkly different portraits on Wednesday on how the plan is doing.

Obama had vowed the stimulus would save or create 3 million to 4 million jobs in about two years when he pushed it through the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress in February.

So far, it has saved or created nearly 150,000 jobs, Democrats say, which is a relatively small number in an economy that is still losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month due to the recession.

While the monthly tally of jobs lost appears to be shrinking, the National Association for Business Economists on Wednesday predicted total U.S. job losses of roughly 4.5 million in 2009, leading to a jobless rate of 9.8 percent.

Unemployment is currently 8.9 percent, 4 percentage points higher than at the start of the recession in December 2007.

Speaking in Las Vegas, Obama said the benefits so far of the package were "just the beginning" and that other aspects of the stimulus have helped give a tax cut to working families, more Social Security money for seniors and greater jobless benefits for laid-off workers.

"There are still too many families struggling to pay the bills, and too many businesses struggling to keep their doors open," he said.

Obama's top economic adviser, Christina Romer, told MSNBC she was optimistic about some improving economic indicators, that it appeared "we are nearing the bottom" of the economic trough and that growth may well resume by year's end.