51吃瓜

US politics has certain steadfast traditions. Evaluating a new president 100 days into their job is one of them, a custom that began when Franklin D. Roosevelt took the helm as the 32^nd president in 1933. Many a time, these evaluations tend to pit the new president鈥檚 performance against their previous contemporaries. Fortunately for Joe Biden, the bar that Donald Trump had set was so low that it would have been impossible to not best it, even with a mediocre performance.

How Joe Biden Looks at the World

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President Biden has proved that he is a shrewd politician, even if he is not the charismatic orator that Barack Obama was, in whose administration Biden served as vice-president from 2009 to 2017. To properly gauge the Biden administration, in addition to comparing the president鈥檚 performance against that of his predecessors, one must also evaluate him against his own campaign .

Bipartisan Politics Redefined

Without a doubt, the most significant achievement thus far for Biden has been the  of his $1.9-trillion stimulus package, dubbed the American Rescue Plan. The bill was passed in both chambers of Congress without the  of a single Republican senator or House representative. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy summed up the Republican sentiment: 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 a rescue bill; it isn鈥檛 a relief bill; it is a laundry list of left-wing priorities that predate the pandemic and do not meet the needs of American families.鈥�

Even Obama, a political novice compared to Biden, managed to get three Republican senators to cross the aisle when he pushed through his American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in . That bill, in response to the global financial crisis, consisted of $787 billion in government spending, which later rose to $831 billion.

A detailed  of a draft version of Biden鈥檚 plan did show meaningful Republican support for many aspects of the bill, including the all-important $1,400 stimulus payment per person. Despite this, and the seasoned politician that he is, Biden could not make meaningful headway in his efforts to rekindle bipartisan politics, a campaign promise he mentioned in his inaugural address to the nation.

Talking about President Biden鈥檚 bipartisan politics, Utah Senator Mitt Romney : 鈥淎 Senate evenly split between both parties and a bare Democratic House majority are hardly a mandate to 鈥榞o it alone.鈥� The President should live up to the bipartisanship he preached in his inaugural address.鈥�

Facing stiff GOP resistance, Biden, the astute politician that he is, has done the next best thing: He has  bipartisanship to go beyond elected Republican officials. When asked, 鈥淗ave you rejected bipartisanship?鈥� in a recent White House , he responded: 鈥淚 would like Republican 鈥� elected Republican support, but what I know I have now is that I have electoral support from Republican voters. Republican voters agree with what I鈥檓 doing.鈥�

A Flurry of Executive Actions

Biden has  a flurry of executive orders, presidential memoranda, proclamations and notices. Signing these presidential decrees at a pace eclipsing his recent predecessors, Biden鈥檚  reversed many of the decisions made by Trump in the areas of immigration, economy, equity, environment and the coronavirus pandemic. Of noteworthy significance are the ones related to gun control, gender equity, the prison system and the pandemic.

Calling gun violence a public health epidemic, the Biden administration  specific actions to tackle the proliferation of 鈥済host guns.鈥� In addition, Biden will nominate David Chipman to serve as the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, an organization that has not had a confirmed head since 2015.

On March 8, celebrated worldwide as International Women鈥檚 Day, Biden signed an executive order  the White House Gender Policy Council. The aim of the council is to promote gender equity by combating systemic bias, discrimination and sexual harassment. On the same day, he signed an executive order guaranteeing an  free from all forms of sexual discrimination.

In many of her speeches, Angela Davis, the outspoken, firebrand activist, has described the American prison system as a business proposition to incarcerate black people and profit from it. In 2003, Davis about 鈥渟lavery and the prison industrial complex鈥� at the fifth annual Eric Williams Memorial Lecture that she delivered at Florida International University. On January 26, Biden signed an executive order to  for-profit prison centers as a step toward reforming the nation鈥檚 flawed incarceration system.

It was heartening to read Biden鈥檚 executive order that acknowledges the fact that a disproportionate number of people of color are in prison, that mass incarceration does not make our communities safe, and incarceration levels will decrease if the federal government鈥檚 reliance on privately-operated, for-profit criminal detention centers is reduced. While it is a far cry from the criminal justice system reform the country sorely needs, it is a laudable step in the correct direction.

In stark contrast to the woefully inadequate response from the Trump administration, Biden has taken several decisive actions to address the coronavirus pandemic. He halted the US  from the World Health Organization and mandated wearing  on federal property for 100 days. He also  the supply of vaccines and personal protective gear. Finally, Biden ensured that the response to the pandemic is ,  and that care and treatment are  to everyone.

Time Is of the Essence

Coming off the high of passing the American Rescue Plan, Biden has launched the even more American Jobs Plan worth $2 trillion in spending over eight years. This initiative aims to invest in the country鈥檚 infrastructure and create new jobs. The hefty bill would be footed by reversing many of Trump鈥檚 tax cuts. These include raising the corporate tax rate to 28%; Trump slashed taxes from 35% to 21% in 2018, the corporate cut in US history. Biden also aims to eliminate tax breaks for fossil fuel companies and block loopholes that allow for tax havens and offshoring jobs. Finally, the administration has proposed increasing the global minimum corporate tax rate to 21%.

Relying on a strategy to fund his ambitious infrastructure and jobs plan by primarily taxing large corporations will not pass muster with Republican lawmakers. It may even face resistance from centrist Democratic senators, such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

With a razor-thin majority in Congress, Joe Biden has accomplished more than what I had expected in his first 100 days. Yet there is no guarantee that the Democratic Party can hold onto the House and Senate majority in November 2022. If recent history is any indication, the House majority does usually switch party after midterm elections, as it happened for Trump, Obama and Bill Clinton during their first terms in office.

Whether the president鈥檚 redefinition of bipartisanship gains acceptance or not, time will tell. But as the savvy politician he is, Biden knows that he has limited time to advance his key agenda items in the next 20 months.

The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.