Reflecting on President Biden’s First Year of Presidency

We were sitting around a table at our weekly Thursday meeting when I asked the question, “What has Biden been up to?” Compared to the last presidency, it’s been pretty quiet in the Oval Office.

Let’s start with one of his biggest campaign promises: tackling the coronavirus pandemic.  President Joe Biden began his presidency by distributing the COVID vaccine throughout the United States. The vaccine was later FDA approved and marketing began airing encouraging everyone to get the vaccine. Currently, President Biden’s vaccine mandate is being halted by numerous lawsuits according to a CNN article titled “Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Is on Hold, But Companies Are Moving Forward Anyways.”  

But comparing statistics from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration, the weekly number of COVID-19 deaths are decreasing. According to an article from USA Today, “the main reasons deaths have decreased since January are mask mandates and the wide availability of vaccines.” This does not mean the end of the pandemic; but it is a start. 

His other campaign promises need to also be remembered. As President Biden promised he would, schools have been reopened and he was able to pass a 1.9 trillion-dollar coronavirus relief package to help the economy. He has yet to repeal the tax cuts that were implemented during the Trump administration. In terms of the environment, the United States rejoined the Paris Climate Accord; President Biden has not been able to reverse or change the entirety of former President Trump’s environmental policies, but it is still a work in progress. 

Like he promised, President Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan and the Middle East. Under the Biden Administration, the United States also rejoined the World Health Organization. In terms of immigration, proposals were drafted to create an improved path for undocumented immigrants to attain citizenship. This has yet to be accomplished. Instead, immigrant detention facilities seem to still be the current sloppy solution to a messy problem. It is important to mention that President Biden did file an executive order that rescinded the travel ban from a majority of Muslim countries. 

In President Joe Biden’s first year as president, he has accomplished a large amount of work towards completing his campaign promises. Although he might be a nice change of pace from the previous administration, it is still important to hold him accountable. It will definitely be interesting to see how the rest of his presidency continues into the next upcoming years.