Joe Biden is Undeniably One of the Best Presidents in History. So Why Don’t his Approval Ratings Match his Performance? And How Bad is it for Our Prospects in 2024?

America Rises Post #6: September 2nd, 2023

Whether or not Joe Biden wins reelection next November, his record of accomplishments already makes him one of the most successful and consequential Presidents in U.S. history. This is not a statement of opinion. It is an incontestable fact based on the landmark pieces of legislation that he has signed into law during his first term in spite of razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress for his first two years and an obstinate and obstructionist Republican Party that’s only goal has been hindering him from achieving legislative victories and then denying him credit for them while often shamelessly taking credit themselves despite voting against the bills.

And yet, President Biden has managed to pass:

—The American Rescue Plan [March 11^th, 2021]

• Allocated $1.9 trillion in coronavirus relief to the American people during the height of the pandemic aimed specifically at providing support to low-income families, the public health system, small businesses; and rental assistance

• Issued funding for vaccines, schools, small businesses, and anti-poverty programs such as expanded child tax credits that provided monthly payments to millions of parents

• Distributed a third economic impact payment to individuals earning up to $75K and couples earning up to $150K of $1400 per person as well as an additional $1400 for each dependent claimed on their tax returns

• Extended unemployment benefits, issued $7.25 billion in new money for small business loans through a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), disbursed over $128 billion in grants to state educational agencies, including $15 billion in funding to the Child Care and Development Block Grant program

• Provided $4.5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help families with home heating and cooling costs.

• Boosted the value of cash vouchers for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP) for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) up to $35 dollars per month for women and children

• Apportioned $37 million to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program for low-income seniors

• Granted $7.5 billion to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to track, administer, and distribute COVID-19 vaccines; $46 billion toward diagnosis and contact-tracing; and $2 billion toward procuring and distributing testing supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE)

• Allocated $25 billion for emergency rental assistance; including $5 billion for emergency housing vouchers for those experiencing homelessness, as well as survivors of domestic violence and victims of human trafficking

—The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) [November 15^th, 2021]      

• Provided $1.2 trillion in new government investments to create millions of jobs, increase U.S. competitiveness abroad, and help address the climate crisis

• Created hundreds of thousands of jobs within the transportation sector, with investments in passenger and freight rail, as well as bridges, roads, airports, shipping ports, and public transit systems/improvements

• Guaranteed safe drinking water by eliminating the nation’s lead-tainted service lines

• Reduced supply chain bottlenecks to ease inflation and lower the cost of goods and services for consumers

• Built a national network of electric vehicle charging stations

• Manufactured solar panels, wind farms, batteries, and electric vehicles to combat the climate crisis

• Increased the affordability, availability, and network of high speed internet throughout the country, particularly in low-income rural areas that still lacked the capacity to obtain high-speed internet access

—The CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) and Science Act [August 9^th, 2022]

• Semiconductors, or “chips,” are the silicon-based computational building blocks for everything from home appliances/electronics to hypersonic guided missiles; also vital for clean energy infrastructure

• Invests over $280 billion in American energy innovation designed to bolster U.S. competitiveness while increasing energy independence and improving affordability

• Authorized a series of programs to promote the research, development, and manufacture of semiconductors within the United States as well as build a bigger and more robust STEM workforce

• Established a more durable domestic semiconductor supply chain, which will help ensure the domestic energy sector is insulated from the supply shocks experienced during the pandemic and times of geopolitical tensions

• Set research and development priorities for the maintenance of U.S. leadership in advanced chip design and production

• Jump-start research and development and commercialization of cutting-edge technologies (e.g. quantum computing, AI, clean energy, and nano-technology)

• For a complete breakdown of what this historic legislation does as well as its necessity for our economy, technology, etc., see this article by Justin Badlam et al.

—The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) [August 16^th, 2022]

• Made the largest investment in climate action in history

• Lowered energy costs, brought opportunities across America, and tackled the climate crisis through investments in agriculture, forest and ecosystem restoration, and rural communities.

• Increased access to lower cost clean energy, improved energy efficiency, and expanded climate-smart agriculture and conservation while creating good paying jobs

• Protected communities from the increasing risks of wildfires and extreme heat and weather conditions that have become increasingly common due to the climate crisis

• Is helping us build a clean energy future via the single largest investment in rural electrification since 1936, with nearly $11 billion allocated to modernize infrastructure of rural areas with clean, affordable, reliable energy that creates jobs, helps the environment, and enhances the quality of life for rural Americans

No one denies that the economy remains the most important factor for voters in Presidential elections. However, we have never seen a scenario quite like the one unfolding before us right now, in which an incumbent president has done an extraordinary job improving the economy, and yet a large portion of Americans remain ambivalent about not just his performance; but the state of the economy itself, regardless of the fact that it is performing well by every metric that exists. As Heidi Shierholz, president of the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, told ABC News back in July, “There's this unprecedented gap between what the data shows us is going on in the economy and what people think is going on in the economy.” So what exactly is the reason for this?