Obama defends slow-moving stimulus

WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama is being forced to defend this year's $787 billion economic stimulus package as job losses mount, analysts say.

Obama, on his trip to Moscow Tuesday, took time out from his foreign policy efforts to argue the stimulus, approved five months ago, needed more time to take effect as new unemployment figures showed the U.S. economy continuing to shed jobs, The Washington Post reported.

"There's nothing that we would have done differently," he told ABC News, while the stimulus' Democratic congressional backers were anxiously contemplating whether a second economic jolt would be necessary to pull the country out of its worst recession since the 1930s, the newspaper said.

Responding to critics, the Democratic lawmakers in Washington noted the bulk of the stimulus money has yet to be disbursed -- only about $100 billion has so far been spent, and they say that in the next 100 days much larger sums will be flowing out of Washington. The Democrats maintain the program is still on pace to save or create 600,000 jobs during the period, the Post said.