Is America Taking Joe Biden For Granted?
President Biden had a historically successful year in 2022. Democrats beat expectations in the midterm election, but are the American people taking this president for granted?
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Joe Biden Had A Very Successful 2022
In 2022, President Biden had the first year of his presidency where COVID wasn’t the dominating problem that his administration had to face. On the foreign policy front, Biden helped to mobilize a coalition, and his relentless support for Ukraine has been cited by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy as one of the main reasons why Russia is losing its invasion of Ukraine.
On the domestic front, the White House released a year in review which contains a list of the Biden administration’s major accomplishments:
The economy continued its historic run, creating more than 10.5 million jobs since President Biden took office. Inflation has shown signs of moderating. Thanks to the landmark American Rescue Plan, we’ve continued to deploy $122 billion in funding to enable schools to hire teachers, combat pandemic-related learning loss, and support students’ mental health. We expanded and strengthened the Affordable Care Act, making it possible for four out five people who sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act to find health care coverage for $10 a month or less and helping to drive the uninsured rate to 8 percent—the lowest ever.
It was a year of historic accomplishments. President Biden signed the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, making unprecedented investments in clean energy, finally allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, setting a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket pharmacy costs, capping insulin in Medicare at $35 per prescription per month, and requiring rebates when drug prices increase faster than inflation. The President brought together Democrats and Republicans to pass the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, securing hundreds of millions in funding to prevent, interrupt, and reduce gun crime, including unprecedented investments in community-led crime prevention and intervention. President Biden also signed into law the PACT Act, expanding access to health care and benefits related to toxic exposures for veterans and their survivors, as well as the CHIPS and Science Act to boost American manufacturing, strengthen supply chains, and create jobs.
There was the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The announcement of up to $20,000 in debt relief for Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 for other borrowers whose incomes were under $125,000, a move that could help more than 40 million borrowers. The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act to better protect our democracy. Capping off the year, thousands of Americans gathered on the White House South Lawn to celebrate as President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law—a vital step forward for an Administration that has done more to advance LGBTQI+ equality than any before it.
That is a long list, and it is even more impressive because it was accomplished with a single-digit seat majority in the House, and a 50-50 Senate. Biden got things done in 2022, and I have a theory of how that we will explore below.
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