Biden’s very impressive legislative record
Less than two years into his term, President Joe Biden’s record of accomplishments exceeds what most presidents accomplished during their entire time in office. In fact, not since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has a president had Biden’s record of success. Amazingly, it has been accomplished with the Senate split 50-50 and a slim majority in the House of Representatives.
More than 10 million unemployed Americans found jobs since Biden took office – the best year of job growth under any President in history. The unemployment rate fell from 6.4 percent to 3.5 percent, the largest annual decline in unemployment ever recorded. A record twenty-two states report unemployment rates below three percent. In 2021, the U.S. economy added over 6.5 million jobs. At the same time, it was the strongest year of GDP growth since 1984.
But first, there was Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP), an early policy victory that provided help to millions of Americans still struggling from the Covid-19 pandemic – the critical importance of which many people seem to have forgotten. More than two-thirds of Americans are vaccinated against Covid-19 thanks to the American Rescue Plan. The Plan extended eligibility for Affordable Care Act health insurance (a/k/a/Obamacare) subsidies to people buying their health coverage on the Marketplace, which increased the number of people eligible for such subsidies 20 percent, from 18.1 million to 21.8 million. It provided $1,400 direct payments to individuals making up to $75,000 annually, $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, $14 billion for vaccine distribution, and $130 billion to elementary, middle and high schools to assist with safe reopening. The expanded Child Tax Credit led to the largest-ever one-year decrease in childhood poverty in American history.
Biden signed into law the CHIPs and Science Act, which provides roughly 280 billion dollars in new funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States and make the U.S. less dependent on China for electronic components. He signed the PACT Act, perhaps the largest health care and benefit expansion in VA history. It expands and extends eligibility for VA health care to veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf War, and post-9/11 eras; adds more presumptive-exposure locations for Agent Orange and radiation; and adds more than 20 new presumptive conditions for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances in a combat zone.
He signed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which implemented several changes to the mental health system, to school safety programs, and to gun safety laws. It includes $750 million to help states implement “red flag” laws to remove firearms from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others, and establishes a process for the licensing and registration of firearms. The Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized through 2027, including new provisions to expand legal services for survivors and to support underserved communities.
Biden’s $1.2 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan is an investment that will help create thousands of jobs and bring U.S. infrastructure into the 21st century. Fifteen Nobel Prize winning economists endorsed the Plan. The Plan provides billions of dollars in funding to repair bridges and roads, to begin replacing every lead pipe in America, upgrade ports, airports, and waterways, and create a national broadband internet. It also includes the largest federal
investment in public transit ever, and the biggest investment in Amtrak since its creation. In 2022 alone, repairs will begin on 65,000 miles of roads and 1,500 bridges. In addition, the law allocates billions of dollars to clean up abandoned mines and oil wells, fund research of next-generation clean energy technologies, build zero-emission public transit, and create a national network of EV charging stations, the largest investment in clean energy transmission ever.
To combat the climate crisis and reduce emissions, Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Accords and committed to cutting U.S. emissions by half of 2005 levels by 2030. He secured the largest investment in climate resilience in American history. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests billions to protect Americans from droughts, fires, and floods while moving America closer to its climate goals.
Yes, inflation is high, but it’s a worldwide problem. Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at investment management firm Invesco, explains there are two textbook reasons why inflation is currently high: demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation. With demand-pull inflation, if consumers expect higher prices in the future, they’re more likely to buy now, and that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, according to Hooper. Cost-push inflation leads to price increases when the supply of goods and services is disrupted; the high prices for oil and natural gas are primary examples. Hooper says the global pandemic had a great deal to do with rising inflation: “We turned off [the] economy, and then we turned it back on.” When the economy started growing again, many countries faced similar challenges with labor sourcing and supply chain disruptions. “That contributed to scarcity of supply just as demand increased,” Hooper notes.
Mark Berg is a community activist in Adams County and a proud Liberal. His email address is MABerg175@Comcast.net.