President Obama said that the economic stimulus bill he signed one year ago helped avert an economic catastrophe and kept up to 2 million people on the job.

“It is largely thanks to the Recovery Act that a second depression is no longer a possibility,” the president said. Marking the anniversary of the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which aimed to perk up growth and halt job losses after the biggest slow down since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the president acknowledge that “It doesn’t yet feel like much of a recovery” as millions are still out of work but the government program provided a “temporary boost” to begin a revival.

Obama’s remarks were reinforced by advisers and allies as the Republicans released their own report with House Minority Leader John Boehner saying that the stimulus law’s first anniversary “marks one year of broken promises, bloated government and wasteful spending.

The Obama administration predicts the economy will grow about 2.7 percent this year, rising to 3.8 percent next year.

Unemployment, which was 9.7 percent last month, is forecast to stay at about 10 percent for all of 2010.