Lots of folks on both sides of the political spectrum have their opinions on whether the $787 billion stimulus bill passed shortly after Barack Obama became President last year has accomplished what it set out to achieve. While many opponents of the spending bill will tell you that it has been a waste of money, those who were for the bill, as well as those who just wanted to see something, anything, done to jump start the economy, have a different opinion.

While there are many components to the stimulus bill such as helping businesses stay open, bailing out the ailing automobile industry, finding alternative sources of energy, and raising funding for various health care and social service programs for Americans, the one that is on most everyone’s mind is the job situation, i.e. job security and jobs creation. Sure, everyone likes knowing there are stimulus checks in the mail, but when you’ve been out of work for anywhere from a couple of months to a year or two, you don’t necessarily see how a check for a few hundred dollars is going to make much of a difference in your bottom line. For some families, that is merely a couple of weeks’ worth of groceries, tops.

However, believe it or not, there just may be some good news coming down the pike for everyone concerned about the jobs situation in America. According to NY Times reporter, David Leonhardt, in his February 16, 2010 article, “Judging Stimulus by Job Data Reveals Success,” some of the top research firms in the county—IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com all estimate that 1.6 to 1.8 million jobs have so far been created and when all is said and done, we will be looking at upwards of 2.5 million jobs created from stimulus money spent, and those are conservative estimates.

But with unemployment figures continuing to hover at around the 10% mark, one of the highest in recent history, it is no wonder that some people still don’t see much to cheer about. Congress is therefore considering another smaller “jobs bill” focused directly on jobs creation to quiet skeptics, many of whom still say that we are no better off now than when the stimulus bill was passed.

If we look at the whole jobs picture and not just jobs creation, we must note that money from the stimulus package so far has helped states keep service personnel such as police and firemen, teachers and healthcare workers on the job in America’s communities. In addition, stimulus money has helped extend unemployment benefits and food stamp programs for families struggling while unemployed. We must remember that saving existing jobs and keeping families going through tough economic times is just as important as creating new jobs on the market.

Critics of the stimulus package, those who say that things would have been about the same without the spending bill, have no proof to back up their statements. Had the country stayed on the same course it was on coming out of the Bush administration, most financial experts claim that the hard recession the country was in would have more than likely gone into a depression.

Perhaps if we look at the whole picture, we can see that just throwing money quickly at a problem doesn’t make that problem go away. However, if you take an intelligent and thoughtful approach to what needs to be done first to put a patch on the problem and buy some valuable time while working diligently to figure out your next step, that just possibly the money that is still waiting to be spent can now go toward programs that will have a more direct and major impact on the working sector of our country. The rest of the money can now go toward building and re-building roads, bridges and the country’s infrastructure state by state. Talk of building high-speed rail systems in many of our major cities can only serve to create more jobs and more tax revenue so that the money spent will quickly be regained.

With people going back to work, the tax revenue again starts to rise, tax credits can flow more freely to businesses who hire more people, and the buying power of America increases. This is akin to priming a pump that has temporarily stopped working. To get it going again, you have to put a little water down into the pump so that it will start sucking water up from the ground. With this stimulus bill and perhaps a smaller “jobs bill,” the country’s pump will again be producing enough economic wealth for all to share.