First published 2012
Michael Grunwald takes readers inside the Obama White House to uncover the real story of the $800 billion stimulus package. Drawing on interviews with over 400 sources and previously unreported documents, the award-winning journalist exposes how this massive legislation came together amid fierce political opposition. Grunwald shows how the Recovery Act prevented economic depression while launching ambitious programs across energy, education, healthcare, and infrastructure. He sits in on cabinet meetings and reveals secret Republican strategy sessions designed to block Obama's agenda. The book demonstrates how the stimulus doubled renewable energy capacity, computerized medical records, created the largest middle-class tax cuts in decades, and sparked the biggest infrastructure investments since the interstate highway system. Grunwald argues this legislation rivaled FDR's New Deal in scope and ambition. The book offers voters concrete facts about Obama's record and the political forces that shaped his presidency.
Genres: political-science, politics, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism
Setting: White House
Period: 2000s
432 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster