President Biden also spent the final weeks of his term reminding voters of some of his more significant accomplishments during his four years in the White House.
Although Biden's presidency has been somewhat overshadowed by his withdrawal from the 2024 race and subsequent Election Day victory for President-elect Trump, there are still a number of accomplishments that the president and his team have highlighted. They claim it will continue even after Biden takes office. Leave the company.
Here are five accomplishments Biden is touting as he heads to the end of his presidency.
survive the pandemic
Biden and his staff have focused on reminding voters of the situation they inherited when they took office in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with cases surging again in early 2021. are.
The Trump administration rapidly developed and approved a vaccine but did little to distribute it, with the responsibility largely falling on Biden and his administration. They also helped guide a complex economy out of the pandemic. It was a plan that Biden often described as “a shot in the arm, money in your pocket.”
Jeff Zients, who eventually served as White House chief of staff, led the coordination of vaccine distribution, but Biden promoted Dr. Anthony Fauci, who had been alienated by Republicans and heavily criticized under the Trump administration. I let it happen.
Biden signed the American Rescue Plan in March 2021. The plan includes a $1.9 trillion coronavirus package that includes funding for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, vaccine distribution efforts, school reopenings, state and local governments, and an expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Includes virus relief measures. .
The size of the spending package ultimately sparked a debate over inflation and whether it was injecting too much money into the economy, but Biden and his advocates say it will put the nation on stable footing. I have argued that it is important for this purpose.
“Democrats lost like other incumbent parties, but they limited the scale of their losses by doing a better job than any other incumbent party in navigating the post-pandemic economic turmoil.”President Biden's White House wrote Bharat Ramamurti, a former economic adviser to the House. of An editorial was published on Thursday.
bipartisan bill
Biden entered office vowing to restore the nation's unity, and while he may have struggled to accomplish that goal, he succeeded in signing a number of bipartisan bills.
Particularly during his first two years as president, when Democrats controlled the House and held a 50-50 majority in the Senate, a number of bipartisan bills made it to the president's desk.
Biden signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in November 2021 to fund improvements to many of the nation's roads, bridges, railroads and airports. Infrastructure legislation became a centerpiece of Biden's re-election bid during his campaign, as he frequently highlighted the failures of the Trump administration's efforts during Infrastructure Week.
The president signed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which provides billions of dollars in incentives for companies to develop and manufacture semiconductors domestically. The Biden administration has clinched a number of deals through legislation, but many of the economic benefits may not materialize until after he leaves office.
Biden also signed bipartisan legislation that protects marriage equality and codifies federal protections for same-sex couples in late 2022.
Even after Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, Mr. Biden was able to broker a deal at a critical juncture. In particular, in late May 2023, an agreement was reached with then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to raise the debt ceiling for two years and apply a new cap to federal spending over the same period. Crisis averted.
Inauguration of Mr. Ketanji Brown Jackson
Mr. Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, fulfilling an important campaign promise. She became the first black woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
The president had the opportunity to nominate only one Supreme Court justice, but he nominated hundreds of other judges to the federal bench. And the White House has touted the diversity of its nominees in the final weeks of its term.
After the Senate earlier this month confirmed Biden's nomination of the 40th Black woman to serve as a federal judge, White House communications director Ben LaBolt said in a statement that Biden “has made the judiciary more important to the nation. I'm proud to have strengthened the judiciary by making it more representative.” And its legacy will have an impact for decades to come. ”
Biden has appointed 233 federal judges. same number This was the case during President-elect Trump's first term in office. The vast majority of Biden's appointments were people of color.
The president is also focusing on appointing public defenders. In 2022, he set a record He elected the president with the highest number of candidates who served as circuit court-appointed public defenders.
student loan
Biden's other most high-profile campaign promise was to forgive student loan debt, an effort that was embroiled in various lawsuits, but he ultimately delivered relief to millions of Americans. I found a way to give.
Biden's first attempt at student debt relief was blocked by the Supreme Court in a 2023 ruling. The Supreme Court also rejected a request by the Biden administration earlier this year to reinstate another plan that would lower payments for millions of borrowers.
Biden instead turned to more targeted efforts.
He forgave student loans for many public servants, including teachers, firefighters and other eligible employees who had been repaying their loans for more than 10 years.
In a memo outlining Biden's final weeks in office, White House chief of staff Zaients predicted that the president would announce additional student loan forgiveness for public servants and other borrowers before leaving office.
The administration announced earlier this year that it would forgive the debt of 35,000 people through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
And in May, the White House announced that $6 billion in student debt would be forgiven after the school was found to have “intentionally induced student debt” at the art school.
However, President Trump has made it clear that he will not continue the massive student debt relief that Biden has provided to borrowers, and may even try to reverse some of the current administration's proposals.
economy
While concerns about the economy and inflation were a major factor in Trump's victory in November, Biden and his team have been adamant that moving the economy away from Trump was one of their greatest achievements. Ta.
Although his presidential bid is hampered by stubborn inflation and rising costs, foster voter dissatisfaction While it ultimately helped put Mr. Trump back in the White House, Mr. Biden and his allies say millions of jobs have been added and billions of dollars to U.S. manufacturing over the past four years. He has repeatedly pointed to investment and the strength of the U.S. economy relative to the rest of the world. Friends in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Fed has cut interest rates twice in recent months, and with inflation generally cooling, further cuts are likely in the coming months.
Biden called on Americans and economists to pay attention to whether Trump creates more jobs than the Biden administration, or if he leaves office with lower inflation and unemployment rates.
He expressed some optimism that history will look kindly on his administration's economic performance, especially when contrasted with Trump's plans to cut taxes on businesses and impose steep tariffs on imports.
“The bottom line is, I'm confident that over time the American people will respond to the intentions of the political parties to help ordinary people,” Biden told MeidasTouch in an interview published Thursday. Ta. “I think the long-term outlook for this country is very good.”
