Squiz Shortcuts - Joe Biden's legacy

Your Shortcut to Joe Biden’s legacy

On 20 January, President Joe Biden’s first and only term as President of the United States will end as Donald Trump starts his second term. So with that about to happen, this Squiz Shortcut will get you across:

• what Biden achieved over the last 4 years

• where the critics say he fell short

• and what steps he’s taken in his last weeks in the White House.

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Squiz the Shortcut

Take me back to the start…
That’s a long way back because Joe Biden has been on the American political scene for 50 years. He started his political career in the Senate representing the State of Delaware in 1973, he was Vice President to Barack Obama between 2008 and 2016, and in 2020, he defeated Donald Trump to become President himself… 

So there’s a lot to look at as his political career comes to an end… 
Yep, but we’re not getting into all of it - just the last bit… When he ran for president, he said he stood for 2 things: the American working class and a unified America. But times were tricky, so a lot of what’s being reflected on now are the things he had to do to deal with the issues of the last 4 years… 

That would have been a fair bit…
He took office in January 2021, so the pandemic was still very much a thing. And then there were the economic consequences of that. The dollar values on a couple of policies were huge… Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure law made major investments in roads, bridges and broadband that will last far beyond his presidency. That got bipartisan support, which is no mean feat. 

How did the US handle inflation?
Glad you asked. There was the $2.2 trillion Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 - it was the biggest climate bill in American history and one of the largest investments in the American economy… The idea was that it created opportunities to build projects, hire workers, and manufacture equipment needed to strengthen domestic supply chains, lower household energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and pay good wages for those efforts. There was lots of debate, though, about whether those investments ended up being inflationary… 

That sounds familiar…
Probably because there’s a similar discussion that we’re having here about the Albanese government’s spending… But back in the US, the Biden administration’s spending didn’t end there - the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan gave Americans cash to cope with the pandemic downturn, and the $280 billion CHIPS Act aims to position the US to outcompete China in producing semiconductors and other advanced tech.

That’s a lot of money…
Yep - which might be why one of the themes of the last election was how US debt has risen to $36.17 trillion, or 133% of their GDP. For comparison, Australia’s debt level is about 30%. 

Yikes…
To explain further - there are theories about how much debt a government should have, and it’s measured against GDP, which is the dollar amount of how much a couple produces in goods and services. So to have more debt than the country produces in a year is a lot… 

So what does Biden say about that?
Team Biden reckons it’s a situation that’s come about because of COVID, and it was on them to keep the US economy afloat, not just for the US but the world. And as we get to the end of his term, inflation is still a thing in the US, but its federal reserve has started cutting interest rates, unlike our Reserve Bank in Australia. 

What’s one of the main criticisms of his time in office?
Well, his record in international relations - particularly the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, along with a chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan - are all seen as ways that the Biden administration came up short.

Why?
Some analysts have pointed out that Biden had decades of foreign relations experience when he entered office. He’d also promised to restore faith in US leadership and rally international support to challenge China's aggression, but those current wars have really taken up a lot of bandwidth - and that’s seen Trump’s promise to distance America from international conflicts resonate with many voters. And then there’s illegal migration… 

That seems like a big issue in the States… 
It sure is - during Biden’s term, migrants crossed America's southern border at record rates, overwhelming government resources and cities that couldn't handle the number of people arriving. When he entered the White House, he promised a more humane system, launching new pathways for asylum seekers and making it easier for some spouses of US citizens to get green cards. But the crisis saw him impose a controversial policy effectively banning asylum at the border, which did bring crossings back down.

What does Trump say?
During the election, he made it very clear that he would crack down on and deport many people who are living in the US illegally. 

So what will Biden be remembered for?
It’ll be hard to think about him without thinking about his abandoned presidential run… Despite ongoing questions about his age and popularity, he was committed to running - just this week, he said he thinks he could have beaten Donald Trump if he’d stayed in the race instead of dropping out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

He’s holding firm, then… 
Yes, but it seems pretty much everyone else thinks his tilt at a second term was a mistake. As for Harris, there wasn’t enough time to build her up with the public because Biden made the decision to exit so late… There’s criticism that he failed to enable a new generation to take over in the Democratic Party.

So where does that leave him?
As his time as president comes to an end, he’s been very active in his final weeks. The move that probably got the biggest headlines was his pardon of his son Hunter…

That was big…
And that’s because Biden had previously promised not to grant Hunter a pardon for tax and gun charges - but he changed his mind in early December, a month after the Democrats lost the election. And he’s not done yet - there are more pardons expected, so look out for that. The other thing to mention - he’s also banned oil drilling off the American coast… 

What’s the thinking behind doing that now?
It relates to the entire East Coast and West Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and a portion of the Bering Sea. Oil and gas companies that want to find or produce offshore oil have to pay the US government to lease sections of the ocean, and Biden's action prohibits new leases in the identified regions. 

What about existing leases?
It doesn’t affect them, and there are heaps of rigs drilling for oil and gas now. But the move is Biden’s attempt to protect those areas from Trump’s vow to access the oil there. One of the Trump administration catchcries is drill, baby, drill…

So what will he do?
TBC… The experts say Biden’s decision is going to be hard for the incoming Trump administration to overturn, so it’s one to keep an eye on. 

What now?
Biden’s last day in office is fast coming up… Trump’s inauguration is on 20 January in Washington DC - so there’ll be plenty of eyeballs glued to the telly to watch it all unfold…

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