1. What Are People Going to Complain About Now?
Joe Biden is still good at politics. We’ve talked about this before, but I just want to restate a summary of the Biden administration’s first 20 months:
Passed the American Rescue Plan.
Fixed the vaccine rollout and gotten us to a post-COVID normalcy.
Passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Passed a bipartisan CHIPS act to boost domestic semiconductor production, which is important both for economics and national security.
Passed a modest, bipartisan gun reform law.
Nominated an overwhelmingly popular and historically important judge to the SCOTUS.
Killed Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Kept job creation booming. (Unemployment is 3.5 percent.)
Gotten the Respect for Marriage Act, which will codify same-sex marriage to take it out of the hands of Clarence Thomas, to the 1-yard line.
Passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which will control prescription drug costs, fix the ACA’s subsidy cliff, and make healthcare more affordable for seniors, in addition to helping the environment.
Is six months into managing the most successful American response to a foreign policy crisis in (at least) two generations.
Oh, and then there’s this:
What more do you people want?
Am I leaving out some debits from the other side of the ledger? Yes. As just a few examples: The Afghanistan withdrawal may be done, but will always be shameful. Inflation is slowing, but still a problem. Gas prices are declining, but are still high.
But I’m also leaving out some of the intangible good stuff.
Joe Biden is not in your face pronouncing on every matter under the sun. You could, if you wanted, go weeks without seeing or hearing him.
When the administration makes mistakes, they are not based on presidential impulses.
Policy is not being made by 1:00 a.m. tweet.
The president is not engaging in the culture war and antagonizing authoritarian-leaning Republicans.
There are no scandals emanating from the executive branch.
Let me throw two ideas at you: