President Obama defended his one-year-old $787 billion stimulus package Wednesday, saying it has created or saved around two million jobs and helped prevent the United States from sliding into a depression.

President Obama: “One year later, it is largely thanks to the Recovery Act that a second depression is no longer a possibility. It’s one of the main reasons the economy has gone from shrinking by six percent to growing at about six percent. And this morning we learned that manufacturing production posted a strong gain. So far, the Recovery Act is responsible for the jobs of about two million Americans who would otherwise be unemployed.”

Obama spoke on the first anniversary of the day he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.