Things To Do By The Time You’re 80
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Reverse a 40-year Federal inaction run on gun violence with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
- 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.
- 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.
- Capped prescription drugs at $2,000 a year for US seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Brought the US poverty rate in 2021 down to 7.8%, the lowest on record.