Re: The Republicans had nothing to do with the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Q: When did the Great Recession begin?
A: December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit research group.
Q: When did the recession end?
A: June 2009, though lingering effects such as high unemployment continued to plague the United States well beyond that date.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/moneymatters/a/When-Did-The-Great-Recession-End.htm
Everything else is smokescreen, chaff and spin.
You don't need a sextant to know which way the wind blows.