When President Obama took office in January 2009, he pledged to pursue an expansionary fiscal policy to try to pull the economy out of the recession. The next month, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, an $840 billion

package of spending increases and tax cuts that was

A) the largest fiscal policy action in U.S. history.
B) second in size only to the fiscal policy action taken during the Great Depression.
C) small in comparison to the actions taken during the recession of 1974-1975.
D) roughly equal to the spending increases and tax cuts implemented during the recession of 1980-1982.

Answer: A