Things To Do By The Time You’re 80

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, November 22nd, 2022 - 10 comments
Categories: Joe Biden, us politics - Tags:

Happy birthday Joe Biden.

As Joe Biden celebrates his 80th birthday in office and Donald Trump announces he will stand for President again in 2024, here’s my Top 10 on what Biden has done in his last few years. He’s still low in the polls, but the delivery is very strong.

  1. Get a US$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package passed for bridges, public transport, broadband, renewable energy and more – the largest package of its type in decades.
  2. Fund and direct more than 500 million COVID19 vaccinations through the American Rescue Plan, and pull the US out of the pandemic crisis after the millions of deaths attributed to Trump’s failed pandemic leadership.
  3. Reverse a 40-year Federal inaction run on gun violence with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
  4. Stay in control of the Senate majority, reversing a multi-decade mid-term Democrat losing trend, prepare for the Trump indictments via DoJ, and restore sanity and accountability to much of US politics.
  5. Help pass the Affordable Healthcare Act with Barack Obama, reversing the worst of the United States private system of health. Strongest Federal action in health since the New Deal 80 years earlier.
  6. Capped prescription drugs at $2,000 a year for US seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act.
  7. Recommitted the United States to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, plus a US$639 billion  climate change mitigation investment, and active leadership at COP global climate events.
  8. Boosted the economy through multiple means including wiping university debt for those who make under $125,000 per year, payments of up to $1,400 in COVID-19 relief for struggling citizens, and pumping the economy with 6 million new jobs and sustained low unemployment. Again, a record on the jobs front.
  9. Completely redirected the US armed forces and the Pentagon budget to fully pull out of Afghanistan, revive and expand NATO, massively fund the likely successful protection of the Ukraine, and massive sanctions against the invader Russia.
  10. Brought the US poverty rate in 2021 down to 7.8%, the lowest on record.

10 comments on “Things To Do By The Time You’re 80 ”

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  1. ianmac 1
    22 November 2022 at 9:59 am

    Can the Senate with a slim majority, pass meaningful actions without it first going through the House?

    • Macro 1.1
      22 November 2022 at 11:04 am

      The Senate can pass stuff – eg the recent Same-Sex Marriage Bill – but it still has to go back to the House where it might well be amended – and only then would it be passed to the Executive (The President) for signing into Law.

    • Macro 1.2
      22 November 2022 at 3:59 pm

      Further to the above – and very important from a progressive POV the Dem controlled senate can still vote and pass on the appointment of judges to the federal courts. This will be a major task in the remaining 2 years of this current Presidency. Biden has been active in appointing many justices in the past 2 years.

      President Joe Biden has appointed more judges to the federal courts at this stage in his tenure than any president since John F. Kennedy, and his appointees include a record number of women and racial and ethnic minorities, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Judicial Center.

      my bold

  2. Sanctuary 2
    22 November 2022 at 11:41 am

    My prediction is the GOP will waste it's house majority on vindictive and petty investigations, culture war nonsense and kowtowing to the Trumpist lunatic fringe in it's congressional caucus that'll hold the whip hand in ensuring a majority in the lower house. Meanwhile, the GOP civil war between Trump and the Evangelical Fascists and the GOP establishment will reach a fever ptich of self-inflicted disembowlment whic will most likely result in either Trump not being selected as the presidential candidate and splitting the right wing vote to run as an independent or Trump simply losing to Biden or any decent Democratic candidate.

    Either way, the Democrats will win back the house and retain the presidency.

    • ianmac 2.1
      22 November 2022 at 2:38 pm

      Already the GOP are setting up to enquire into theBiden and son business connections. Hah.

      • Sanctuary 2.1.1
        22 November 2022 at 7:06 pm

        The thing about the GOP is it no longer believes in democracy. Essentially it has become areactionary neo-Confederate project dedicated to regressive social policies and bent towards the maintenance of white power in the United States.

        Large parts (most?) of the party prefer the idea of a Hungarian style "managed democracy" (you'll often hear nonsensical claims from them like the US isn't a democracy, it is a "constitutional republic" as a semantic excuse for their behaviour). So they'll keep using every possible measure for voter suppression, gerrymanders, court stacking, and utterly baseless claims of "voter fraud" and "rigged elections" to subvert and delay the day the dam breaks and every move within the existing constitutional framework they try to hold on to power will simply no longer be able to withstand the march of demographic and chronological change. The GOP will then be forced to choose between irrelevance or becoming nakedly disloyal, anti-democractic and authoritarian to try and retain it's political relevance.

        Then it'll really hit the fan.

  3. Mike the Lefty 3
    22 November 2022 at 6:45 pm

    You know I don't think a lot people expected a whole lot from Biden when he was elected. His victory came because enough people decided they were sick of their country being led by an unpredictable nutter and ANY alternative was better.

    But in his own relatively low-key fashion he has done quite a lot, as you detail, and America's foreign policy is better served by his low-key but firm style.

    • Tiger Mountain 3.1
      23 November 2022 at 9:50 am

      Yes Biden has done better than expected. Though there remains a feeling that Bernie Sanders was the best President the US never had, thanks significantly to DNC machinations, strategic withdrawals of candidates like Buttigieg and Warren, and pressure from top donors and the likes of Mr Bloomberg.

      However it comes down to numbers in the end with two opportunists in the Democratic ranks–Sinema and Manchin–who stymied some of Joe’s more ambitious plans.

  4. Karl Sinclair 4
    23 November 2022 at 7:38 pm

    In reverence to Spinal Tap who had the Marshall guitar amp set to max out at 11 not 10 let’s include Bidens Top 11th good deed

    Wait for it

    Wait for it

    Coming in at 11 =

    Nearly triggering world war 3 + (between 37,000 – 72,000) dead Ukraine soldiers

    https://dailysceptic.org/2022/10/30/how-many-ukrainian-soldiers-have-died-in-the-war/

    Sorry people, but can’t understand why you all gush for Biden and the Dems…

    There slogans should be

    War over diplomacy

    Profit over peace

    USA over Europe

  5. RP Mcmurphy 5
    24 November 2022 at 8:17 pm

    Joe Biden accomplished one of the greatest feats in modern political histgory by kicking trumps bum. Thank you Joe.

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