By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com, editor@news-photos-features.com
Wow. What a finish to a historic, transformative presidency. This is long because Biden has had an extraordinarily full list of accomplishments, virtually all unknown, ignored, unappreciated because of a four-year circus of calamity of Trump literally monopolizing the media and the message. But it is important to lay down markers, to make a record because Trump will steal credit – as he already is doing – or when things go to hell, will shift blame – as he and his sycophants kissing ass in order to get appointed to his administration, are already is doing. This is long, yet it doesn’t even begin to touch on all Biden has done with his administration, most importantly, demonstrating that government can, and should, improve our lives.
Just three days before he hands over the keys to what the incoming dictator wannabe believes are to his kingdom, President Joe Biden declared the Equal Rights Amendment to be part of the Constitution – effectively rendering unconstitutional all those abortion bans, bans on receiving healthcare and emergency care, bans on receiving medication, bans preventing women to travel out of state, as if they already were not violations of human rights that rendered women less than full, sentient human beings.
He managed to finally get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire that would pave the way for the hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’ savage attack on October 7, to finally be released and Israel’s all-out war to cease.
He continued to issue pardons and clemency to those who deserve it – achieving a record for the most pardons of any president. Trump will no doubt try to up his record by wholesale pardons to the January 6 insurrectionists who caused the death and injury to hundreds, including 140 law enforcement officers.
President Joe Biden could have been so disillusioned with the way America has ignored, discounted, distorted, rejected his extraordinary achievements in bettering life for all Americans, in laying the foundation for longterm, sustainable economic growth that lifts all, undoing decades of “trickle down economics” that justified growing the wealth of the already obscenely wealthy, while curtailing the ability of ordinary Americans to ever get ahead, let alone thrive, that Biden might have just sailed through the last days of his term, played golf or vacationed as Trump did for literally a full year of a four-year term (while collecting taxpayer money to cover Secret Service costs). and just made the circuit to collect applause. Instead, up until his last day, last hour as the President of the United States, he is working feverishly on so many fronts (that Trump is already taking credit for):
Biden has had a transformative presidency – people may love Barack Obama but his naivete, actually believing Republicans wanted to help Americans harmed by the Bush-Cheney Great Recession instead of obsessively focused on making Obama a one-term president, was his undoing. Biden got big things done – the biggest when Democrats controlled Congress. (As predicted, as soon as Republicans took over, their sole mission was to undermine Biden and pave the way for Trump’s return). But as Biden acknowledged in his last interview, his big mistake (or rather the big mistake of Democrats), was not making it absolutely clear who to thank, who to credit. As Biden said, his big mistake was focusing too much 0on the policy and not the politics. Unlike Trump, who signed the $750 pandemic relief checks himself, Biden said, “I’m not a huckster,” and the 63,000 infrastructure projects across the nation that his administration is subsidizing (more in Red States than Blue because their Republican leadership has neglected infrastructure for decades in their quest to cut taxes but depend on Blue States to fund their federal subsidies, despite Republicans having voted AGAINST the Infrastructure Act and Inflation Reduction Act) are only just beginning to be built, so Trump and the Republicans will, of course, put their name on them.
The overarching mission of Biden’s presidency has been a Justice Agenda - economic, political, climate, environmental, public safety, social, gender - that infused a “whole of government” focused implementation. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
The overarching mission of Biden’s presidency has been a Justice Agenda - economic, political, climate, environmental, public safety, social, gender - that infused a “whole of government” focused implementation.
There are the really big things – historic, landmark - that will benefit America and Americans for generations, like the Inflation Reduction Act, with its historic investments in climate action and tax fairness (bound to be undone by Trump); the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act (Biden would emphasize Bipartisan); the CHIPS and Science Act; the American Rescue Plan which kept millions from losing their homes and savings and jobs from which they could never recover; saving millions from suffering the same fate as the million Americans who succumbed to COVID-19 largely due to the tragic incompetence of the Trump Administration (they anticipated that the dead would be concentrated in Democratic strongholds) by administering the greatest public health program since the crippling polio epidemic; passing the first meaningful gun control legislation in 30 years that helped drive the sharpest decline in gun violence ever; appointing the most and most diverse slate of judges, in a first term including the first Black woman Supreme Court justice.
Most of the world has still not recovered from the economic shock of the global pandemic, but Biden’s policies are responsible for the strongest economy in the world, and the strongest economy since the 1950s.
And then there are the constant crises averted with such dexterity as to be overlooked ignored or more dangerously, taken for granted: There could have been a run on the banks after Silicon Valley failed and Commerce Band soon after, but there wasn't. Mothers were frantic to find baby formula when the major producer’s factory had to be shut down for health reasons, but Biden quickly organized and issued waivers to allow formula to be imported from abroad. Vital transport and commerce was restored in unbelievably short time after the Key Bridge was destroyed in Baltimore, and the I-95 highway collapsed in Philadelphia. Chemical spills after a series of rail disasters such as in Palestine Ohio were remedied not in years or months but weeks. He kept gas flowing in the Southwest (and prices at the pump from rising) after a ransomware attack on a major gas distributor.
Upset about inflation due to supply chain problems? Biden averted a Teamsters strike, kept gas flowing after a ransomware attack. Millions of people are getting relief from junk fees, finding it easier to get refunds from airlines, and then there are the millions who are getting their student debt forgiven or reduced - there would have been millions and millions more, but the Republicans went to court to prevent that. And for the first time ever, Medicare was able to negotiate drug prices - reducing the cost of life-saving insulin from $400/month to $35/month, and this year, 10 more drugs will be similarly reduced, while seniors will have a cap of $2000 out of pocket. Biden’s goal was to make these life-saving drug changes available to all. And Biden just eliminated medical debt (responsible for about half of all bankruptcies) from credit reports.
His administration worked to gird up cybersecurity against the hackers, the hackavists and ransomware criminals, and to enable Artificial Intelligence to be developed and let loose in such a way as to protect privacy and national security – which is why the Tech Bro Billionaires became such eager, generous supporters of Trump who has demonstrated over and over that he is easily bought and government and governance is cheaply sold.
Indeed, in his farewell address, Biden warned against the rise of oligarchy taking hold (thanks to Trump emulating his mentor, Vladimir putin), and the emergent “tech industrial complex” that threatens the essence of a democratic society.
“Democracy is fragile,” President Joe Biden warned, and in his last days in office, took a flurry of actions to try to bolster rights when the guardrails, the checks-and-balances and separation of branches that protected the United States against the rise of a despot or autocracy, have been erased. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via MSNBC.
“An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy. I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech- industrial complex. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. In the age of A.I., it’s more important than ever that the people must govern.” Later, in an interview, he added, “I’m really concerned about how fragile democracy is.”
It is so ironic – if not downright false – that Biden, Harris or Democrats “didn’t listen to working class,” when President Biden has been, hands down, the most pro-labor, pro-union, pro-worker president in history. Overseeing record multi-trillion dollar investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy, technology, research, Biden attached a “Made in America” policy, created the Made in America office; required Project Labor Agreements on nearly all major federal construction projects of over $35 million; signed the Butch Lewis Act to save more than one million pensions; and was the first president in history to walk a picket line, with auto workers.
He tossed aside the bullshit “trickle down economics” model that Republicans used to justify tax cuts to the wealthiest individuals and corporations while literally screwing working families and middle class (and vow to continue, paying for extending and EXPANDING tax cuts to billionaires by cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the social-safety net). For this brief and what will be recognized as a golden age of worker rights, Biden replaced “trickle down economics” in place since Reagan with an economic playbook built on growing the economy “from the bottom up and the middle out” entailing investing in the country, in the future and bringing jobs – and hope – back to hollowed out communities. He literally transformed an economy that was flat on its back in the midst of the pandemic into the strongest economy in the world, and admits that the pandemic is what enabled him to make that shift to investing in the future.
His economic agenda has attracted over $1 trillion in private sector investments in clean energy and manufacturing. After decades of trickle-down economics that slashed taxes for the wealthy, diminished public investments, off-shored jobs and factories, destroyed unions, and ripped at the social safety net, President Biden has written a new playbook that’s growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up. In September, he delivered remarks at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., laying out how his economic recovery plan rescued us from one of the worst economic crises in American history and delivered a soft landing without the long anticipated recession, stagflation, and job losses. Defying the entrenched money-is-power interests, Biden’s middle-out-bottom-up playbook is delivering the strongest recovery in the world, and laying the groundwork for a strong foundation for years to come:
Over 17 million jobs created—the most in a single presidential term in American history—with jobs created every single month;
The lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years;
A record 20 million new business applications;
A doubling of union petitions;
The smallest racial wealth gap in 20 years;
More Americans with health insurance than ever before;
The stock market at record highs and 401(k)s up; The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. stock market is on track for its strongest two-year performance of the century. (Trump predicted the market would collapse under President Biden.).
More than $1 trillion in announced private sectors investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing in America thanks to Inflation Reduction Act’s historic investments in climate action, CHIPS & Science Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and Biden’s “Made in America” policy.
America invented semiconductors. But when President Biden took office, the U.S. produced only 10% of the world’s supply. “Thanks to his CHIPS and Science Act, we’ve catalyzed hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector investment and are finally bringing U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and innovation back.”
The Administration finalized one of its largest awards with Micron Technology, the only U.S. based manufacturer of memory chips, to support the construction of several state-of-the-art memory chips facilities - Micron will build chip facilities that will create at least 20,000 jobs in New York and Idaho and catalyze over $125 billion in total investment. Also, TS Conductor Corp is establishing US-based manufacturing of High Voltage Direct Current Conductors, creating 425 construction jobs and 162 operating jobs with wages above prevailing rates in Michigan.
Biden, who had to make up for the backsliding of Trump 1.0 who immediately pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord and implement “drill baby drill” payoff to Big Oil donors (promising to do the same again if Big Oil would pony up $1 billion for his election), addressed the climate crisis as the existential crisis it is, and in such a way as to support jobs, revitalize manufacturing, and stimulate the economy, while lowering energy and utility costs for families and businesses. As Biden often said, “When I hear climate action, I think jobs.”
He awarded $735 million to build out clean vehicle infrastructure – those EV charging stations without which it is hard for consumers to adopt electric cars - and support jobs to deploy zero-emission transportation technology.
“So many more projects will come online from Georgia to Wisconsin – creating good paying jobs, bringing hope to communities that saw their core industries move overseas, and cement the United States as the leading economy in the world, outcompeting other advanced economies.”
Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Act has already approved 63,000 projects across the country - not tied to voting registration - in fact, Red States (which tend to be the most impoverished and the most in need of revitalization) received the majority of spending.
Despite Trump and Republicans’ sabotage of Biden’s immigration reform and Border Security measures, his administration has still managed to cut the flow of migrants to the level during Trump’s administration © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via MSNBC.
Violent crime has declined at record rates (despite the outright lies by Trump); the so-called “invasion” of migrants across the Southern Border has been brought down to a level UNDER Trump, despite Trump sabotaging the Border Security Bill that would have brought the funds and resources to bolster security and the judges and support to adjudicate cases in a matter of weeks, instead of months or years (asylum-seekers are not “illegal” if they are vetted), but Trump’s Homeland Security pick Kristi Noem is already promising to end the program that allows migrants to schedule appointments in favor of imposing mass deportations without due process, prosecution of elected officials who do not comply and family separation (cruelty is the point, not security)..
Voters claimed they were really upset with the Biden Administration because of “the economy” and “inflation,” (I think because they were unwilling to admit they voted against Kamala Harris because they are racist, misogynist, xenophobes who welcomed Trump’s permission to be cruel and violent) but Biden achieved what economists would consider impossible: lowering inflation (largely ginned up by price gouging and anti-competitive activity), while supporting a strong labor market—with inflation down faster and lower than almost any other advanced economy, and incomes up almost $4,000 more than prices.
In fact, though Trump and the Republicans regularly lie about inflation (now down to a little over 2% and never at the double-digit level that afflicted other countries), they ignore all the ways that Biden has actually lowered costs far more than the $1 extra per dozen eggs: gas prices are down to pre-pandemic levels; he succeeded in getting the first negotiated drug prices, getting the cost of insulin down from $400/month to $35/month, capping prices on 10 more drugs a year, and to cap out-of-pocket for Medicare recipients at $2,000, which he sought to expand to all.
He worked over and over again – against Republicans who sued to overturn – to reduce or eliminate student debt, succeeding in helping millions of borrowers save tens of thousands of dollars (again, more than the $1/extra for eggs). He just announced more student debt cancellation for public service workers and other borrowers.
He worked to undue monopolistic price-fixing, noting that monopolies are not “capitalism” they are “exploitation.
He worked to bring cheaper (cleaner) energy and utilities, including low-cost broadband to the nation.
But Republicans have sued to stop student debt relief, and even to reverse the ability to drive down drug costs - the incoming Trump trifecta is determined to revoke Obamacare. And yet, no backlash, no blame put on Republicans. Indeed, it was the Republicans who constantly manufactured new crises: holding the global economy hostage by refusing to raise the debt ceiling - which had impact on lowering the nation’s credit rating, making debt that much more expensive - and constantly threatening to shut down government by refusing to pass a budget.
The President and First Lady hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Women’s Health Research, bringing together business and philanthropic leaders, academic researchers, women’s health advocates, investors, and federal agency representatives to showcase the President and First Lady’s historic leadership to advance women’s health research and discuss how to continue making progress on improving women’s health. Since its launch, the Women’s Health Research Initiative has galvanized nearly $1 billion in funding to close gaps in research on women’s health.
The CDC announced the largest decline of overdose deaths we have ever seen for the reporting period ending in July 2024, making it the 8th month in a row of declines. President Biden has made tackling the overdose epidemic a key priority of his Administration and has directed a whole-of-government approach to go after its two key drivers: untreated addiction and drug trafficking. As a result of decisive actions taken by this Administration, we are seeing lifesaving results for the American people.
And then there are the national parks, monuments, preserves that Biden saved from exploitation, desecration, including acknowledging the harm that white settlers did to the indigenous people across America. In everything, Biden lived the American “value” of equality, dignity and respect due each and every one.
With his latest action to protect Atlantic and Pacific Coasts from offshore oil and gas drilling, President Biden has now conserved over 670 million acres of America’s lands and waters, more than any other president in history. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
In January, President Biden acted to protect the entire U.S. East coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, and additional portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska from future oil and natural gas leasing. In protecting more than 625 million acres of the U.S. ocean from offshore drilling, President Biden determined that the environmental and economic risks and harms that would result from drilling in these areas outweigh their limited fossil fuel resource potential. With these withdrawals, President Biden is protecting coastal communities, marine ecosystems, and local economies including fishing, recreation, and tourism – from oil spills and other impacts of offshore drilling.
“We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient, and the food they produce secure and keeping energy prices low. Those are false choices. Protecting America’s coasts and ocean is the right thing to do, and will help communities and the economy to flourish for generations to come.”
The Biden-Harris Administration’s climate and conservation record includes creating three new national marine sanctuaries and a new national estuarine research reserve, including the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Central California; advancing designations for four additional sanctuaries; safeguarding Bristol Bay salmon fisheries; approving more than 19 gigawatts of offshore wind projects, enough to power more than 6 million homes; investing $2.6 billion in coastal communities; and releasing the first-ever U. S. Ocean Climate Action Plan.
President Biden has now conserved more than 670 million acres of U.S. lands, waters, and ocean – more than any president in history. This includes establishing or expanding ten national monuments and restoring protections for three more; creating six new national wildlife refuges; protecting the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, the nation’s most visited wilderness area; and withdrawing Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, Pactola Reservoir in South Dakota, and Thompson Divide in Colorado from further mineral, oil, and gas leasing.
These actions helped advance Biden’s America the Beautiful initiative, which is supporting locally led conservation efforts with a goal to protect, conserve, and restore at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
In contrast, Trump, who reversed Obama’s designation of national monuments, and invited extraction industries into national parks, mocks the “climate sham” and promises his Big Oil donors to “drill, drill, drill.”
President Joe Biden unleashed the greatest public health initiative to end the coronavirus pandemic that killed 1 million Americans, and holding to the belief that “healthcare is a right, not a privilege,” presided over record enrollment in health insurance © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
So much of what Biden has been able to accomplish - despite the sick sabotage and obstruction by Republicans (for which remarkably, they are never blamed) - is due to who Biden appointed - and again, taken for granted, especially when you consider the clown car of corrupt jackals Trump appointed in his first term and how much worse his White Christo Fascist appointees are for his 2.0 administration, determined to dismantle the progress made over 250 years. But Biden’s appointees - scandal free and 98 percent of them making it all the way through the four year term - gave us the fastest recovery from a Great Depression, and the strongest economy in the world, with that feared recession that was supposed to be around every corner never happening. Record job growth. Tamed inflation without stagflation. Stopped the death and suffering from coronavirus (standing up the mostly ambitious testing and vaccination program since polio) that saved millions of lives.
“Under the President’s and the Vice President’s leadership, this team got more done in one term than most presidencies get done in two – setting the highest standard for effective government that will serve our country for decades to come,” stated Chief of Staff Jeff Zients in a memo to White House staff. “Whether you joined the President and Vice President a year ago or have served for years, what you have accomplished is extraordinary. So, I want to take a moment to thank you for your hard work in the toughest pressure cooker in the world. The President gave us a clear directive on day one to get as much done as possible.
“During a time when most would expect us to slow down, you are accelerating: Getting Investing in America awards out the door, celebrating historic milestones and delivering on the President’s promise to the American people.”
Zients noted “In the last month alone, we:
• Reached the milestone of unleashing $1 trillion in private sector clean energy, semiconductor and other advanced manufacturing investments made in the United States under this Administration.
• Finalized over $16 billion in CHIPS awards in the last month alone, spurring over $180 billion in private investment to accelerate American semiconductor manufacturing. This includes funding for TSMC to open three new factories and create good paying jobs in America.
• Celebrated historic progress under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, announcing awards for an additional $3 billion to expand passenger rail, make roads safer, improve ports and strengthen supply chains.
• Took action on a range of important issues from ending subminimum wages for people with disabilities, to cracking down on leaks of methane by oil and gas companies, to dramatically expanding access to innovative medications for obesity and reducing out-of-pocket costs for these prescription drugs.
• Worked to secure the border, including collaborating with our international partners, which has led to the lowest levels in encounters between ports of entry at the Southern border in over four years.
• Secured a ceasefire between the governments of Israel and Lebanon to end the devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
• Advanced U.S. global leadership, as the President became the first sitting President to visit the Amazon and Angola. And at COP29, supported the successful negotiation of mobilizing the level of finance that developing countries need to accelerate the transition to clean, sustainable economies.
Biden reinstated the United States as the global leader, marshalling coalitions against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, keeping in check China’s aggression, and getting the elusive Israel-Hamas ceasefire © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via MSNBC.
“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, America is stronger and more secure – thanks to the President’s dogged efforts to revitalize our Alliances,” stated Ben LaBolt, Senior Advisor to the President and Communications Director. “For example: Putin is isolated, and NATO is stronger than ever – the President built an unprecedented coalition of over 50 Nations from Europe to Asia to support Ukraine (and demonstrated his support by becoming the first sitting president to go into a war zone without his own troops, traveling 10 hours by train), welcomed Sweden and Finland to NATO, and today a record 23 NATO Allies are at or above 2% defense spending.”
Because Russia and Iran were weakened, the Syrian despot Assad was deposed, ending a 13-year civil war and a 50-year despotic reign of terror.
“President Biden harnessed the collective strength of Allies from the Atlantic to the Pacific – whether through AUKUS to working with European and Indo-Pacific Allies to protect sensitive technologies critical to national security.
“The President disproved the conventional wisdom that China would inevitably surpass the United States. He invested in America and our Alliances to put America in a position of strength as we build the industries of the future and expand our Alliances and commercial partners.”
And then there is finally winning a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War on terms Biden laid out last May, which will pave the way for a two-state solution that Netanyahu (and Trump) have resisted.
“I think what we're handing off is a very strong hand from the United States in terms of our national power, in terms of the strength of our alliances,” stated Jake Sullivan, national security advisor. “America’s competitors and adversaries are weaker and under greater pressure than they have been. All the while, we kept America out of war. so that kind of hand allows Donald Trump to come in and do two things. One, work to continue to improve America’s strategic position vis a vis our geopolitical competitors. And two, try to shape a world that is consistent with the interests and values of the U.S. now, it's going to be up to him how he plays that hand. But I’m proud of what we're handing off.”
“President Biden inherited a crisis, but under his leadership, the nation has emerged stronger, while laying the foundation for the future,” Zients stated. “It will take years to see the full impact across the country, but the seeds have been planted for a new economic foundation that can transform America for generations to come.?
It is important to put a marker in what Biden accomplished – his legacy – because Trump and the Republicans will in the first place, run on the momentum, just as Trump did on the revitalized economy that Obama left him, which they expect will last through the 2026 midterms, before the horrors of their disastrous economic, social, environmental policies take hold, sink in, or can be masked by the complete takeover of media and the message.
“After 50 years of public service, I give you my word. I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands,” Biden stated in his farewell address. :A nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure. Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America. You love it too. God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you for this great honor.”
See Fact Sheet on The Biden-Harris Administration Record Here (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/15/the-biden-harris-administration-record/)
Starting on January 20th, visit BidenWhiteHouse.Archives.Gov to access the archived version of the Biden White House website, preserved for posterity and that lives on in perpetuity with the National Archives.
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