President Biden’s Accomplishments

It’s common these days to see the rapid 2024 exit of multiple global social democrat leaders as just a post-COVID symptom of democratic impatience. But Biden achieved far more than his age-related decline obscures.

The first two years of his presidency were all about stabilising the entire country out of crisis, and he and his team wresting with members of Congress, going back and forth. In the first surge of his Presidency he passed some massive legislation that included bringing back semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States, fixing roads and bridges, mailing massive recovery cheques to everyon, and starting up  a new kind of green, clean economy.

American Rescue Plan 

Biden generated through this an historically strong and broadly shared economic recovery. This was the American Rescue Plan. This plan drove unemployment down below 4% for 28 months – the longest stretch in over 50 years. This Plan also spurred massive investments in fighting crime, enabling 2023 to get to the lowest rates of violent crime in 50 years, and the sharpest decrease in the murder rate in US history. This plan also had a large Child Tax Credit, and vaccination campaigns, which has led to the lowest child poverty rate in US history. 

Most Pro-Labour President in US History

He got the Department of Labor to raise pay for 4 million workers by increasing overtime  – particularly for workers earning less than US$43,888 per year.

During the 2023 Auto Workers Strike, President Biden made history by becoming the first President to walk the picket line in support of workers. The United Auto Workers’ win was one of their biggest.

Biden’s Butch Lewis Act was the most significant for union retirement security in over 50 years. This protected roughly 2 million workers’ pensions.

Biden also ensured that all Federal construction projects over US$35m to had union labour, higher wages, and higher labour standards.

Facing up to the Climate Crisis

Biden’s inflation Reduction Act had has a major effect on the United States as a climate polluter. In the three years since he signed that Act, more than 330,000 clean energy jobs and US$273 billion in new clean energy investments in nearly every state in the US. Together with the CHHIPS Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and Inflation Reduction Act, over US$900 billion in announced private sector clean energy and manufacturing investments were made. This  – together with generous tax breaks from California – enabled the rise of Tesla to be the current dominant player in world electric car production.

Building and Renewing Infrastructure

There’s too much to summarise here, but in brief the massive Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has provided funding and got started over 60,000 infrastructure projects across thousands of communities in all 50 states, tribal areas, and territories.

International Relations

For the most part he ensured the United States interfered a whole lot less in the world. Neither the United States nor the rest of the world found this easy.

He pulled the United States out of its failed  20-year venture to stabilise and improve Afghanistan. It was messy and was always going to be.

He stopped Russia from completely taking over Ukraine, and towards the end of his term generated a further US$800 million loan for armaments that give Ukraine their best chance to resist the most aggressive act by any nation since the Korean War. Russia has been checked and only the US had the resources to deploy to do that. 

His leadership also saw a major expansion of NATO, and continued to give confidence to all NATO countries bordering Russia or its allies that they would be defending.

His effect in the Middle East is a mess that will takes years to recover or even evaluate. On the one hand Israel’s regime is broadly popular in the United States (outside the Arab communities) and in Israel for its total dismantling of Iranian terrorist networks from the Euphrates to the Sinai, and finally the collapse of the frankly evil Assad regime. Biden’s State Department support for the Abraham Accords were the most important diplomatic breakthroughs for Israel and the Middle East since the 1980s. On the other hand Biden’s support for Israel post-October 2023’s widespread terror attack is at the cost of military injury and death in the hundreds of thousands of people both combatants and civilians.

Biggest losses

Biden was unable to pass comprehensive immigration reform, due in part to lobbying from former President Trump. Migrants crossed America’s southern border at record rates during Biden’s tenure, overwhelming government resources and cities that just couldn’t handle the number of people arriving. Arguably if he and his administration had better resourced this border he would have won the 2024 election.

He only got one Supreme Court judge on, so the tilt is very much in the conservative and Republican leaning 6-3. He got several hundred Federal Appeals judges through though.

He and his administration simply didn’t engage enough with South East Asia to regain friends and influence that would have helped in the great contest against China. China’s economic decline is however at least as fast as that of Europe or Russia, and the US remains Numero Uno by most metrics of power and influence and wealth. 

Bottom Line Evaluation

For a one-term administration, Biden’s was one of the most productive and progressive we have ever seen. He was the first since LBJ to suspend his campaign – but he would surely have done better than the weak and incoherent Harris who took over the Democratic Presidential ticket an led the Democrats to catastrophic loss that will take many terms to repair.

Biden will be remembered unfairly less for  his powerful actual delivery and more for his feeble comms delivery. Once this Trump term has finished he will be the last and most effective actual President since Clinton.