With concern growing over whether the stimulus is doing enough to stem fast-rising unemployment and the business community and others increasingly up in arms about the potential costs of the Administration’s health care and energy proposals, both President Barack Obama and his top economic advisor, Larry Summers, have gone on the offensive.

In a series of recent speeches, the President has aggressively defended his economic policies and the need for an extensive health care reform bill. And in an exclusive interview earlier in the week with BusinessWeek, Summers was also quick to dismiss the criticism that the stimulus has been too slow to take effect. “You look at how frequently people are talking about depression. (Compare) six months ago vs. now, it’s not a term you hear anymore,” Summers told BusinessWeek. “I reject the view that the stimulus bill has not worked.”

Expect to hear that theme a lot more in coming weeks as the Administration seeks to regain the high ground on the economy. The core argument: its policies have pulled the country back from the abyss and generated stability far sooner than many thought possible just six short months ago, even if full recovery will be slow and painful in coming.

In a lengthy speech this morning intended to rebut the critics at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank, Summers hammered that idea home. He reminded the overflow crowd in attendance of the situation the country faced as the Administration took office.

“The anxiety stretched well into the mainstream. Take one example as an indicator: Google searches for the term “economic depression” were up fourfold from their pre-crisis levels,” Summers said. “Now, he says, such hits have returned to normal levels.”

Much of the speech was devoted to reviewing the moves the adminstration has taken, and — no surprise here — Summers’ favorable take on the progress that has been made. To those worried about the deficit and the prospects of rising inflation, he also made clear that getting the economy back to health was by far the top priority.

Read more:
Summers on the Economy, Recovery, Productivity and Unemployment