The New York Times
Biden’s Remarkable Presidency
By Nayyer Ali MD
Joe Biden became President on his third attempt after almost 50 years in politics. No one saw him as an inspiring or transformational figure, in reality he has always been in the center of the Democratic Party, and moved both rightward in the 1980’s and leftward in the 2010’s as the party moved. He was never much of a leader, which makes his Presidency astonishing in its achievements.
Not only was Biden not much of a trailblazer, he entered the White House with the thinnest of Democratic majorities in Congress. In the House, he had about five votes to spare, and in the Senate the Democrats were tied with the Republicans at 50 Senators each. The Constitution breaks ties in the Senate with the vote of the Vice-President, giving Biden the chance to pass legislation if he could hold all 50 Democratic Senators together. Creating another barrier is the filibuster, which requires 60 Senators to overcome to allow a vote on any legislation, with the exception once a year of a bill that conforms to “reconciliation” rules, which can be passed with 51 votes. The reconciliation bill has to include only items that affect taxing and spending, so cannot include things like immigration, voting rights, or gun regulation.
With all these constraints, hopes among liberals that Biden could actually achieve much were dim. But Biden laid out a very aggressive agenda. It had four major parts. First was a massive COVID relief package to restart the economy in early 2021. Second was major investments in infrastructure and technology. Third was climate change. Fourth was significant new expansion of social benefits like health care, childcare, and a child tax credit to cut poverty for children.
Biden claimed that he was well-suited to negotiate with Republicans and he could get much of this legislation passed even with the filibuster because he could work with Republicans. This was greeted with immense skepticism by liberals, who remember years of obstruction by Republicans during the Obama Presidency. But Biden has actually delivered on his promises. He got a massive 1.9 trillion-dollar COVID relief package in early 2021 done by reconciliation with no Republican votes. But then he turned around and got a 1.2 trillion-dollar infrastructure bill passed with Republican votes in November of 2021. He followed that up in July 2022 with 280 billion dollars in investments in the computer chip industry to make America the global leader in chip manufacturing and compete with China, and he did that with Republican votes. He then followed that up this week with the Inflation Reduction Act, which raises taxes on corporations, reduces the deficit, but most importantly it invests several hundred billion dollars to accelerate the US transition off fossil fuels. This gives America the credibility to be a global leader in saving the environment. This Act got no Republican votes and had to be done through reconciliation, and only got passed because the Democratic Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, finally agreed to the deal. It also expanded insurance eligibility for healthcare, and for the first time gave Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.
Add to all that, Biden has rallied NATO, provided critical aid to Ukraine, gotten Sweden and Finland to join the NATO alliance, and blocked Putin’s mad gamble in Ukraine without risking a single American soldier. He has supported Taiwan and pulled the US out of Afghanistan. The exit from Afghanistan has been terrible for the Afghan people, but it was strategically the right move for the US. He also killed the deputy leader of Al-Qaeda responsible for 9/11 in a drone strike after he eluded the US for over 20 years.
Biden has also gotten more judges approved to the Federal Courts in his first 18 months than any recent President. And after the massacre of children in the elementary school in Texas, he got Republicans to vote for the first meaningful gun regulation since 1994.
The only black mark on Biden’s record is the burst of inflation the country is experiencing. But that is not really Biden’s fault, since inflation is happening everywhere. Germany and the UK are seeing high rates of inflation too. The worst of that is likely over as oil and commodity prices have been falling, and central banks have been tightening monetary policies.
Put it all together, and Biden has been perhaps the most successful President in terms of getting his agenda through Congress since Lyndon Johnson enacted the Great Society reforms in the mid-1960s. His performance will leave him a place in the history books. America’s oldest ever President has stated he will run for re-election in 2024. If his health permits, he will have a very strong case to make for being returned to office.
