How soon we forget (Gettysburg Times op-ed)

Before he took office, President Biden began developing his agenda for America that addressed not only the continuing COVID pandemic, but also widespread poverty and a shrinking middle class, our costly healthcare system, a failing infrastructure, and the ticking time bomb of climate change. His ambitious agenda became four comprehensive bills: the American Rescue Plan (ARP), which focused on improving healthcare and giving families economic relief from the COVID pandemic, followed by the Infrastructure and the Build Back Better bills, which were intended to enable more Americans to join and remain in the labor force, and to “grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out” (White House paper). The long-overdue Infrastructure bill has been called the first comprehensive infrastructure plan since Eisenhower created the interstate highway system in the 1950s. In Pennsylvania, we saw bridges and highways across the state being fixed and high-speed internet coming to communities that had been without, including some in rural Adams County. The American Rescue Plan also provided funding for high-speed internet, especially needed for older children’s education during the COVID shut down.

Finally, the admittedly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act that followed later was billed by the U.S. Department of Treasury as “the most significant legislation to combat climate change in our nation’s history.” In addition to helping the U.S. meet its climate goals, it was to create millions of good-paying jobs and is considered one of the largest investments in the American economy in a generation.

Over the past two to three years, several of my Democracy for America (DFA) colleagues and I have written lengthy op eds covering most of Biden’s major initiatives. This op ed now focuses on how they have provided a social safety net and met significant healthcare needs.

American Rescue Plan (ARP). Having been closely involved with Obama in creating the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Biden devised a new plan to make healthcare more affordable to many more people through premium tax credits and subsidies. The ARP provided access to the ACA, as well as to Medicaid, to many more people. States that had rejected the Medicaid expansion in 2010, when the ACA became law, were now offered 100% reimbursement to expand the program for more low-income people. Free COVID testing and vaccinations were made available. These initiatives created the largest expansion of healthcare insurance since 2010.

To help families weather the economics of the pandemic, in March 2021, the ARP increased the Child Tax Credit, which since 1997 has helped keep millions of families out of poverty. The maximum credit amount went from $2,000 to $3,600 per child under age 6 and $3,000 per child ages 6-17. Seventeen-year-olds were included for the first time. This generous benefit supported 2.2 million Pennsylvania families in 2021 and 2022, but it’s now up to Congress to renew it.

Build Back Better began to tackle the problem of high drug costs, which has plagued Americans for years. Congress finally approved a whittled down version of Biden’s proposal to deal with problem, at least for Medicare patients, who have the highest drug usage. Seniors’ out-of-pocket prescription drug payments are now limited to $2,000 annually. Annual drug price increases, which had outpaced inflation for several years, were also limited, not only for Medicare, but also for commercial markets beginning in 2022.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided people with additional help with healthcare costs by extending the ARP premium subsidies in the ACA marketplace for three more years (to 2025), by lowering both prescription drug prices and out-of-pocket costs for people on Medicare, and by making all vaccines for them free. For the first time, Medicare now

has the right to negotiate with Big Pharma on prices for commonly used, but expensive drugs. Effective January 1, 2003, out-of-pocket costs for insulin were capped at $35 for a monthly prescription for Medicare Part D enrollees. Reductions for ten other costly, single-source drugs will be added beginning in 2026.

Many historians have called Biden the most progressive president since Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), who developed the New Deal following World War II. Some have indicated that Biden may likely go down in history as the best president ever given that he accomplished so much in spite of a Congress that was extremely divided. FDR, in contrast, had the full support of his Congress and the American people.

So why are so many people disappointed in Biden? Why are his ratings so low today? E.J. Dionne, Jr. a prominent columnist for the Washington Post, recently opined:

“The economic numbers tell us the president should be in a happy place. In its recovery from the pandemic-induced recession, the United States has outpaced its competitors, Gross domestic product grew at an astonishing annual rate of 4.9 percent the third quarter of 2023. Inflation was tamed without any sign of a widely predicted recession. Unemployment is at 3.7 percent, and real incomes are 2.7 percent above their January 2021 levels, meaning wage increases are outpacing price increases.”

Social media and Fox News promoting disinformation may be largely to blame, but it’s more than that. Some of the mainstream media have acknowledged that they have done a terrible job of covering the President Biden’s accomplishments, many of them focusing on Trump more than ever. Then there are the two wars in Ukraine and Gaza, which have created almost insurmountable problems for any president, especially with a recalcitrant Congress unwilling to spend any more money on other countries’ wars and a general failure to recognize the interconnectedness of the world today.

Too many people are not feeling the results of a largely good economy and have forgotten the help so many have received from Biden initiatives. As the pandemic has been largely under control with new vaccines targeting ever-changing mutations of the virus, some of the initiatives to help families have been left to expire, including the expanded Child Tax Credit. As

a result, childhood poverty in Pennsylvania rose from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% currently. (Note that Senator Casey has introduced the Child Poverty Reduction Act, S. 2906 to address this problem.)

Not all of Biden’s initiatives, especially those in Build Back Better, survived the cuts of a divided Congress, filled with Republicans who do not know how to govern, and many of whom do not believe in a government that helps its people. But the benefits of what was passed were remarkable.

The stakes are incredibly high in the 2024 election. All of us must become informed about our choices and what they mean. What would it be like to live under a truly authoritarian government that a Trump presidential win would ensure? Remember the devastating effects of the Dobbs decision on women across the country. Trump’s victory would be the death of democracy, of a government by and for the people. A win for Biden would be a win for democracy and the good of the whole.

Jeanne Duffy, Ph.D., was a college professor, an analyst and project manager for several large companies, and a college administrator in charge of foundation and government support.

She is a member the DFA Steering Committee and the Healthcare and the Government Accountability task forces.