The Biden Enigma – What has he done?

Biden’s approval ratings are down, people’s patience is waning and uncertainty swells within the Democratic Party as they prepare to mount their defence of seats in both chambers of Congress this coming mid-term election.

Having held relatively stable for the first half of the year, hovering at around 53% approval, Joe Biden’s ratings have plummeted by an average of 10% over the past three months. Now, to be fair, this is not uncharted territory for US Presidents, and for leaders in general at that. Once the electoral hype dies down and the first lofty ambitions are met, political leverage dampens, and governments fall back into their role, that is, to govern. This, coupled with the fact that the opposition parties have had to regroup and start their political sieges again, almost always leads to the incumbent leaders taking a hit in the polls.

But let’s take a better look at some of the reasons why Biden’s approval rating is suffering – what has he accomplished, or failed to achieve at that, in his tenure till now?

But let’s take a better look at some of the reasons why Biden’s approval rating is suffering – what has he accomplished, or failed to achieve at that, in his tenure till now?

Inflation and the Economy

At face value, the message is clear – the US economy is booming, unemployment rates have been heavily dented, wage increases have resumed, and spending is on an upward cycle.

But much like that incredible frozen pizza you demolished at 2 am (for the third time this week), it does not come without its consequences. An economic recovery of this scale, could not be achieved without a surge in inflation. And it is this surge in inflation that has led to a consumer confidence epidemic across the country. People simply do not trust how the Democratic Party is handling the economy, and though this may well be down to the political stigma that Republicans are better managers of the country’s fiscal status, their worries are not entirely out of line. US inflation is the highest it’s been since the early 1990s, after all.

But is this really as concerning as it sounds? Well, like most instances in the past three years – the answer is, it’s complicated. Sure, prices in the US are increasing quite substantially in some cases, but so are prices in the UK, Germany, and China. The pandemic was followed by a strain of governments loosening monetary policy and expanding public spending. This trend continued all over the world, and it will take us some time to see what long-term effects the decisions had, and how things could have been handled differently.

Infrastructure

If you’re at least moderately up to date with current affairs in the US, then you’ve definitely heard about the famous Trillion-dollar Infrastructure bill. The significance of this bill, though, lies less in its magnitude and scope, and more in the bipartisan effort that was required to push it through. This same bipartisanship is the only, or at least biggest hallmark of Biden’s leadership, and in an almost identically split congress, cooperation is absolutely crucial, and will be tested again soon enough as the equally famous Social Spending bill comes up for debate.

But naturally, to say the actual content of the bill is any less than vital would be a significant miscalculation. It will serve to create thousands of jobs across the country, which in turn will be allocated towards upgrading a crumbling road network, fixing severely aged bridges, all the way to delivering a much-needed broadband expansion throughout the country.

How well the massive investment will be disseminated is of course a whole other story, and we’ll be sure to analyze it in the near future.

Climate Change

This is an area where much is left to be desired from the Biden presidency. Not everything is bad, of course, by way of climate-specific policy, there has been some much-needed action; Fuel emission standards have been toughened, 40-50% of cars in the US are targeted to be electric by 2030, and permits for the Keystone XL pipeline, Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Drilling project, as well as new leases for oil and gas exploration on public lands, were all revoked or blocked.

But while all this is great, it continues to feel as though it’s nowhere near enough, because it isn’t, and one would hope the Biden presidency can deliver something more significant in the coming years.

Covid-19

Covid-19 is one of the only issues where polls still show significantly stronger confidence in the Democratic party than in the Republican’s hands, along with Education and Healthcare.

Vaccines have been heavily pushed, with rules such as ones making it mandatory for employees at big companies to take the jab, and that requiring all federal employees to be vaccinated – all taking force among heavy criticism. Alongside these efforts, masks and PPE continue to be produced in mass and their use encouraged, and in many cases even mandated.

Of course, this barely touches the surface of what happened in the past year and is only meant to give a brief insight into the major faces of the current US government. All eyes now turn unto the Social Spending bill debates, and the role that both parties, and the Presidency, will play in its destiny.