Obama, Biden Tout Stimulus Spending; President to Name Deficit-Reduction Panel

It's not the kind of festive anniversary we associate with weddings or heroic events. But the White House marked the one year since President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill with a major PR roll-out Wednesday, arguing that the recovery plan had saved the country from going over an economic cliff.

"No large expenditure is ever that popular, particularly at a time when we are also facing a massive deficit," Obama said. "Our work is far from over, but we have rescued this economy from the worst of this crisis."

The Democratic National Committee and its counterpart, the Republican National Committee, also marked the occasion -- not with balloons but dueling videos.

The DNC claimed the stimulus has created or saved between 800,000 and 2.4 million jobs. It also accused congressional Republicans of hypocritical behavior for criticizing all of the spending, while promoting its benefits in their home districts. Obama said Wednesday some Republican lawmakers "squirmed" when he listed the tax cuts in the law during his State of the Union speech.

The RNC called the stimulus a "boondoggle" and highlighted what it called out-of-control spending and sweetheart deals.

Obama's overseer of the stimulus package, Vice President Biden, wants to step up the pace of stimulus spending, distributing $32 billion a month for economic stimulus and job creation efforts this year, topping the $27 billion per in 2009, according to CNN.

Through last month, the government says, $334 billion in stimulus spending had been authorized, of which $179 billion has actually been transferred and another $119 billion has gone to tax cuts.

Separately, the federal government is looking to save money. President Obama plans to announce Thursday the creation of a deficit-reduction commission to develop recommendations for reining in spending and shrinking multibillion-dollar budget deficits.

Politico quotes a White House official saying that the president was forced to issue an executive order establishing the commission "because seven GOP senators flip-flopped and voted to kill a bipartisan legislative proposal to do the same thing."

Erskine Bowles, a onetime Clinton White House aide, and former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican, will co-chair the panel.