Democrats have taken a lot of heat for the stimulus package, and public perception of the package certainly hurt Democrats in the midterm elections.

But we’re getting more evidence that the stimulus worked, as the CBO has come out with a new report about the impact of the package.

The massive U.S. stimulus package, widely panned by voters, injected life into the otherwise-sluggish economy between July and September, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act put between 1.4 million and 3.6 million to work in the third quarter of this year, a time when more than 15 million Americans were unemployed, CBO said.

It also boosted national output by between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent during that time, the CBO said.

During the third quarter, the economy grew by an annual rate of 2.5 percent. Economists say a rate faster than 3 percent is needed to make any noticeable dent in unemployment.

Here’s even more impressive data.

The unemployment rate, currently 9.6 percent, would have been between 10.4 percent and 11.6 percent without the Recovery Act, the CBO said.

The stimulus created the equivalent of 2 million to 5.8 million jobs during the third quarter as part-time workers shifted to full-time work, or employers offered more overtime work.

The Obama administration made the fateful error of predicting that the stimulus package would prevent unemployment from going over 8%, and that hurt the public perception of the package.

It’s clear, however, that the stimulus package helped to save the US economy.