White House tries to regain stimulus momentum

By EAMON JAVERS | 7/17/09 12:45 AM EDT

The White House tried to regain its footing Thursday after weeks of getting attacked by Republicans who call the $787 billion stimulus plan a failure, with the president’s top stimulus thinkers saying the plan wasn’t designed to turn around the economy overnight but instead to blunt the worst effects of the recession.

The president’s team told reporters that the massive spending plan is a two-year program that they always knew would take time to ripple through the economy — an attempt to rebut Republicans who say the current 9.5 percent national unemployment rate shows the program isn’t working.

“This goes out to September of 2010,â€