He’s old. He stumbles from time to time. He has to use a teleprompter. He fails to complete sentences. His polling numbers are at an all-time low. He botched up the withdrawal from Afghanistan. I have heard all of these comments about President Joe Biden, but maybe history will treat him much better because he has currently accomplished more than any president in the last 20 years.
There is no doubt that the country has gone through a lot in the past four years. The COVID pandemic disrupted our lives in countless ways. The onset of inflation didn’t help the mood of the country. Politicians in general are disliked because they are a natural target in times when people are just angry and need someone to throw stones at. But if you take an objective view of Joe Biden’s first two years, there is a lot more on the plus side of the ledger than any recent president I can name.
When Joe Biden ran for office, he promised that he would try to encourage more bi-partisanship in Washington. He made specific pledges about helping to upgrade our crumbling national infrastructure. He said he would urge Congress to do something on the issue of gun control. He spoke about the burden of student loan debt and said something had to be done. He stressed that the world was suffering mightily from the dramatic changes in our climate.
When you match the promises to the performance, President Biden has a lot to be proud of. The current Congress, which generally can’t even agree on the time of day, has passed a number of significant bills on a bipartisan basis with the full support and encouragement of the president. The infrastructure bill is pouring billions of dollars into new roads, bridges and tunnels. Our regional highways, such as the much-hated Long Island Expressway, are being repaved and improved with federal dollars.
Our nation has had to deal with the constant sadness of mass killings with deadly guns. Happily, thanks to a bipartisan effort, Congress passed a gun control bill, the first since the assault weapons ban of the 1990s. Critics of the measure will say it didn’t go far enough, but the country finally got something done which has the potential to save lives. But facts are facts: No president, including Bush, Obama and Trump. were able to successfully get changes in the gun laws.
The country is currently struggling with a dramatic shortage of microchips that are needed for all electronic devices. A non-electric vehicle might require as much as 3,000 chips and an electric vehicle uses twice as many. Personal computers and cell phones require chips as well. Presently, the vast majority of the microchips are manufactured in Taiwan. In July, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, which will provide $39 billion for the production of microchips in the United States.
Regrettably, not every action taken by the Congress was on a bipartisan basis, but thanks to a united Senate Democratic delegation, the nation now has its first ever climate control bill. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress has provided $369 billion for climate and clean energy projects. In addition, it allows Medicare to negotiate with drug companies, firms up the Affordable Care Act and taxes a number of companies that have dodged paying their share of taxes.
To add to his string of successes, President Biden has signed an executive order giving 42 million American students a $10,000 to $20,000 reduction in their student debt, based on income limits. There is no doubt that some Republican senators will challenge the authority of the president to act by executive order, but it is still a case of promises made and promises kept.
Joe Biden has had his share of problems, some created by his action or inaction. There is no way he can fix his sagging poll numbers and he can’t use an eraser to make the Afghanistan fiasco go away. But it is a plain fact that he will be treated much better by the historians than Donald Trump and most of the recent occupants of the White House.
