Hey, the same guy who thought that the 9/11 attack was a 7-Eleven attack. [Donald]’s talkin’ about dementia? All I can say to the American people is watch me, is see what I’ve done, is see what I’m gonna do. Look at me. Compare our physical and mental acuity. I’m happy to have that comparison. – Joe Biden
Our duly-elected President Joe Biden’s accomplishments pile up so rapidly, hard to keep track.
Joe himself was gracious enough to share this incomplete list.
Important to add 1.) pardoning thousands of marijuana victims; 2.) rushing humanitarian response to Florida’s hurricane victims; 3.) forgiving thousands of students’ government debt so they can get a fresh start. Think casino bankruptcies.
Of course, battling inflation, insurrection, voter suppression, while defending Ukraine and a woman’s right of bodily autonomy.
Keeping Dr. Jill satisfied. Biking and big dogs.
It’s like he’s three much younger men – Uncle Joe, POTUS and, now, Dark Brandon.
Where does he get his energy?
Signed the Inflation Reduction Act
President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act to bring down costs, reduce the deficit, and take aggressive action on climate – all paid for by making sure the largest corporations and billionaire tax cheats finally pay their fair share in taxes.
This historic legislation lowers health care costs for millions of families and allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time. The Inflation Reduction Act caps seniors’ out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs at $2,000 per year and ensures no senior on Medicare will pay over $35 per month for insulin. Under the law, 13 million Americans, covered under the Affordable Care Act, will see their health insurance premiums reduced by $800.
The Inflation Reduction Act also takes aggressive action to combat the existential crisis of climate change. These historic clean energy investments will help families save hundreds of dollars every year on their energy bills while strengthening our energy security, creating jobs, and getting us closer to meeting our climate goals.
All of this is paid for by establishing a minimum corporate tax to ensure that the wealthiest corporations finally start to pay their fair share, and cracking down on billionaire tax cheats – without increasing audit rates or raising taxes on those making under $400,000 a year by one cent. President Biden promised to make the government work for working families again and that’s exactly what this law does.
Improved health care for veterans
President Biden has long said that it is our sacred obligation to prepare and equip those we send to war and to take care of them and their families when they come home.
As president, he has worked to ensure we make good on this sacred obligation and has signed multiple bipartisan bills to honor and improve care for veterans.
In his first State of the Union address, President Biden called on Congress to pass legislation to make sure veterans impacted by toxic exposures and their families get the comprehensive care and benefits they earned and deserve. In August of 2022, President Biden signed the PACT Act – the largest single bill to address our service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins in American history.
Signed the CHIPS and Science Act
President Biden signed landmark legislation into law that will accelerate semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. The CHIPS and Science Act will help lower the cost of everyday goods, strengthen American manufacturing and innovation, create good-paying jobs, and bolster our national security.
The CHIPS and Science Act will help us compete with China by bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. The law makes historic investments in research and development to accelerate the industries of the future and advance U.S. technological leadership.
Thanks to President Biden’s Made In America strategy, the United States has created hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs and businesses are investing in new manufacturing lines across the country. The CHIPS and Science Act makes smart investments in manufacturing and research to build on this historic progress and set America up to win the economic competition for the 21st century.
Took historic action to address the gun violence epidemic
President Biden brought together Democrats and Republicans to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, breaking a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence legislation. The legislation took important steps, including requiring people under 21 to undergo enhanced background checks, closing the “boyfriend loophole,” and providing funding to address youth mental health.
President Biden has moved decisively to combat gun violence – issuing dozens of executive orders and signing the most significant gun violence reduction legislation to pass Congress in 30 years.
President Biden has launched a whole-of-government approach to make our communities safer and issued more executive orders to reduce gun violence in his first year than any other President at the same point in their administration. In July of 2022, Steve Dettelbach, President Biden’s nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, became the first Senate-confirmed director of the agency in more than 7 years.
Early on in his administration, President Biden took on the gun lobby to rein in the proliferation of ghost guns. The Biden administration acted to ban the manufacture of ghost gun kits and make it illegal to sell ghost guns without a background check.
Restored American leadership on the world stage
Under the previous administration, confidence in U.S. leadership around the world plummeted to historic lows. Since taking office, President Biden has worked to revitalize our alliances and restore America’s position of leadership on the global stage.
When Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, President Biden rallied our allies across the globe to ensure Vladimir Putin pays a steep economic price for his unjustified war of aggression.
Thanks to President Biden’s leadership, international confidence in the United States has sharply increased. America is back, and our alliances are stronger than ever.
Ended America’s longest war
After more than 20 years of conflict spanning three previous administrations, President Biden acted decisively to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. Resolute in his commitment not to send another generation of America’s daughters and sons to fight in Afghanistan, President Biden ended our nation’s longest war.
President Biden promised that we’d continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan without American troops on the ground. In August of 2022, the United States successfully carried out an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was a key architect behind the 9/11 attacks and Osama bin Laden’s successor as head of Al Qaeda.
In acting to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, President Biden ended an era of major military operations to remake other countries and refocused our national security efforts on the threats of today – not the threats of 2001.
Took action to address gender-based violence
In 1994, then-Senator Biden authored the Violence Against Women Act which provided legal protection against domestic violence and sexual assault for 28 years until it was allowed to expire under the Trump administration.
As President, Joe Biden broke through two years of Republican obstruction and signed legislation in March 2022 to reauthorize and strengthen the Violence Against Women Act.
Thanks to President Biden’s leadership, the Violence Against Women Act is now reauthorized through 2027 and includes new provisions to expand legal services for survivors and support underserved communities.
President Biden also signed historic legislation ending forced arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment, protecting survivors and making it safer to report harassment in the workplace.
Passed the American Rescue Plan
President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act into law, an unprecedented $1.9 trillion package that helped combat COVID-19 and supercharge a historic economic recovery.
The American Rescue Plan:
Helped get over 500 million shots in arms, distribute millions of therapeutics, and dramatically expand testing capabilities. Over two-thirds of Americans are vaccinated against COVID-19 thanks to the American Rescue Plan.
Delivered needed relief to families by sending over 160 million checks to Americans, expanding food and rental assistance, and providing aid to thousands of small businesses. The expanded Child Tax Credit led to the largest-ever one-year decrease in childhood poverty in American history.
Safely reopened America’s schools and made a historic investment to tackle learning loss and address mental health. Today, over 99% of schools are open for in-person learning. Before the ARP, only 46% of schools were open in-person.
Biggest year of job growth in American history
President Biden is leading America through a historic economic recovery. In 2021, the U.S. economy added over 6.5 million jobs – the greatest year of job growth under any President in history. At the same time, we saw the largest annual decline in unemployment ever recorded and the strongest year of GDP growth since 1984.
This didn’t happen by accident and a rapid recovery was not guaranteed. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, unemployment has dropped below 4% years ahead of predictions and our economy has recovered faster than other major global economies. President Biden is leading our country’s historic recovery by investing to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down.
Took action to combat COVID-19
The Biden-Harris Administration successfully mobilized the largest free vaccination program in the history of the United States, dramatically increased the national supply of tests, and expedited the development of life-saving COVID-19 treatments.
Before President Biden took office, there was no comprehensive plan to get Americans vaccinated. President Biden got to work immediately on a national effort to get shots in arms. Funding from the American Rescue Plan helped vaccinate over 200 million Americans and administer over 500 million shots.
Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration, over three-quarters of American adults are fully vaccinated, up from less than 1% before President Biden took office.
President Biden took action to drastically increase the number of free testing sites around the country and secure millions of rapid, at-home tests. The Administration launched COVIDtests.gov so Americans could order tests to be shipped directly to their homes for free.
At the same time, the President expedited the development of numerous, effective COVID-19 treatments including life-saving antiviral pills. In total, the Administration secured 20 million courses of antiviral pills that have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by 89%.
Passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
Thanks to President Biden, we’re done talking about infrastructure week. Now, we’re building about an infrastructure decade.
President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a once-in-a-generation, transformational investment that will help create thousands of jobs and set America up to win the 21st century. The law provides billions in funding to repair bridges and roads, begin replacing every lead pipe in America, upgrade our ports and airports, and expand broadband access to all. It also includes the largest federal investment in public transit ever and the biggest investment in Amtrak since its creation.
In 2022 alone, repairs will begin on 65,000 miles of roads and 1,500 bridges.
President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will rebuild America’s critical infrastructure, create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, and increase our competitiveness for years to come.
Took action to combat the climate crisis and reduce emissions
President Biden has made combatting the climate crisis a top priority. In the first days of his Administration, President Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Accords and committed to cutting U.S. emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2030.
As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure law, the Biden-Harris Administration is making the largest investment in clean energy transmission ever. In addition, the law allocated billions to clean up abandoned mines and oil wells, fund research of next-generation clean energy technologies, build zero-emission public transit, and create a national network of EV charging stations.
President Biden also secured the largest investment in climate resilience in American history. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests billions to protect Americans from droughts, fires, and floods while moving America closer to our climate goals.
Expanded health care to millions of Americans
After four years of endless attempts to strip health care from millions of Americans under the previous Administration, President Biden took action to strengthen the Affordable Care Act by expanding eligibility and extending the open enrollment period.
As a result, President Biden has brought down costs and expanded health care access for millions of Americans. Thanks to tax credits in the American Rescue Plan, a record 14.5 million Americans signed up for coverage for this year through the ACA, including 5.8 million new customers. At the same time, President Biden’s American Rescue Plan made quality coverage more affordable than ever, with millions of families on ACA plans saving an average of $2,400 yearly on their premiums.
In addition, President Biden took action to end the practice of surprise medical billing. By strengthening consumer protection rules and expanding price transparency, the Biden Administration protected millions of Americans from unexpected health care costs.
Nominated and confirmed historic judicial nominees
The President delivered on his promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court when he nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Judge Jackson will be the first Black woman and public defender to serve on the Supreme Court.
President Biden is working to shape a federal judicial system that fully represents America’s diversity. Of the judges confirmed in the President’s first year, 80% were women and 53% were people of color.
Overall, more than 50 of President Biden’s circuit and district court nominees have been confirmed by the Senate – far outpacing recent previous administrations. In his first year alone, 40 of President Biden’s circuit and district court nominees were confirmed by the Senate – the most in any President’s first year since Ronald Reagan.
Took big steps toward a future made in America
Since President Biden took office, he has been relentlessly focused on revitalizing American manufacturing.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law made investments to strengthen our supply chains and encourage companies to bring good-paying manufacturing jobs back home. Among other measures, the President strengthened Buy American rules to make sure more of what we buy in America is made in America. These critical steps towards a future made in America will lower costs at home and set us up to win the 21st century.
President Biden’s Made in America strategy resulted in the largest yearly increase in U.S. manufacturing jobs in nearly 30 years.
