Even before the first shovel went into the ground on a project funded by the Obama administration’s $814 billion stimulus plan, the program was under attack from Republicans who have called it a waste of taxpayer money. But now the White House is fighting back.

A new report obtained exclusively by ABC News outlines the administration’s top 100 stimulus projects — a greatest hits compilation of what the White House considers the best examples of the stimulus in action.

“Republicans have often criticized the Recovery Act without recognizing projects specifically like the ones in this report,” White House economist Jared Bernstein said in an interview with ABC News. “If you look at these projects, these are the ones that help plant the seeds for significant job opportunities for the middle class moving forward.”

The report, entitled “100 Recovery Act Projects That are Changing America,” highlights projects nationwide that the White House says are putting people back to work now and transforming the country’s economy for years to come. The full report will be unveiled Friday by Vice President Biden.

…The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll showed 92 percent of Americans say the economy’s in bad shape while a mere 24 percent believe it’s improving. And for the first time, more people think President Obama has hurt the economy than helped it, 33 percent to 30 percent. In addition, the number of people who believe he’s helped the economy has dropped by 9 percentage points since spring.

“When you put all the things we’ve done together, it has made a difference,” President Obama said at a press conference at the White House last week. “Three million people have jobs that wouldn’t have them otherwise had we not taken these steps. The economy would be in much worse shape.

“It worked,” Obama said. “It just hasn’t done as much as we need it to do. We’ve still got a long ways to go and we’re going to keep on doing it.”