Although the 2009 federal stimulus plan helped prevent a global depression, America still feels the pinch of hard times. Unemployment hovers around 10 percent and the country’s GDP remains significantly below 2007 levels. With this in mind, the Congress should welcome Obama’s recent suggestions for renewed efforts to stimulate the economy.

Last Tuesday, President Obama delivered a speech to the Brookings Institute outlining major proposals to promote job growth. These initiatives included small-business tax credits, the use of $200 billion left over from Troubled Assets Relief Program funds to support business hiring, and increased public infrastructure spending. The most novel initiative is a new tax credit to promote energy-efficient homes that will hopefully invigorate the green jobs sector.

While the original stimulus bill provided much-needed relief for a staggering economy, Obama is right to assert that we must “not let up in our efforts to take every responsible action to get the economy growing.” These proposals represent exactly the sort of responsible spending needed to bring back economic prosperity.

By funneling the money left over from TARP funds toward businesses’ hiring credits, the government will hopefully bring down the remarkably high unemployment rate. According to Obama’s plan, tax credits will be given to industries that employ a certain number of low-skilled workers who would otherwise likely be fired as a result of the economic downturn. Historically, similar plans to keep workers employed during recessions have worked. The 1977 New Jobs Tax Credit was immediately followed by an 11.2 percent rise in employment—a record for the United States at the time. And there’s no reason to believe that it won’t work again. John Bishop, an economics professor at Cornell University, predicts that Obama’s proposal will have great success and increase employment by 2.8 million by the end of 2010.

In addition, the eco-friendly homes tax credit, affectionately labeled “cash for caulkers,” serves the dual goals of economic stimulus and environmental reform. The program, a brainchild of John Doerr, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and Bill Clinton, would give households anywhere from $2,000 to 4,000 to pay for weatherization projects. This stimulus is beautifully effective—homeowners are incentivized to carry out renovation projects that generate job growth and create more environmentally friendly homes. By combining green initiatives with fiscal stimulus, Obama’s proposal kills two important birds with one stone.

And unlike the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which many accused of being an agglomeration of pork-barrel projects, Obama’s new proposals have a national focus. They represent efficient use of federal funds to provide much-needed stimulus to an economy that still isn’t back on its feet.

The president’s political opponents have denounced excessive spending and claim that additional stimulus will only swell the budget deficit further. To an extent these critics are correct—further domestic spending will make Obama’s goal of halving the deficit by 2010 even more unlikely.

However, many of these proposals are funded through money that is already legislated for use, and, given the economic realities of the moment, encouraging job growth is far more important than fiscal prudence. The government should look to break the grip of the recession and reject calls to curb necessary domestic spending.