Biden Touts Achievements, Envisions Bright Future

President Joe Biden in Bay City, Mich., on Nov. 29, 2022. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s legislative achievements are already delivering results and changing lives, the president said on Feb. 14.

“If we didn’t pass another single thing, the things that are going to take place by implementing just the laws we passed last year are going to deliver real benefits to people that they’re going to feel in their everyday lives,” Biden told a gathering in Washington of county officials from across the nation.

The president went on to tout results from four pieces of legislation that total $3.89 trillion in federal spending on COVID-19 relief, infrastructure, energy, and high-tech manufacturing

Congressional Republicans uniformly opposed most of the initiatives as inflationary and incurring additional debt.

Signature Legislation

The president voiced an optimistic view of American potential and repeated his commitment to “finish the job,” as stated in his State of the Union address a week ago.

Biden claimed credit for economic gains of the past two years, including creating 12 million jobs and reducing unemployment to a 50-year low of 3.4 percent.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) was the president’s first major initiative, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package ostensibly designed to help the nation recover from the health and economic effects of COVID-19.

Among other things, that provided $12 billion to address mental health needs arising from the pandemic and enabled the hiring of a record number of border agents, resulting in the seizure of 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in recent months, Biden said.

Undated photo of Intel plant in Chandler, Ariz. Photo courtesy/City of Chandler, Ariz.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) provided $1.2 trillion for highway, transit, motor carrier, and rail projects, as well as funding for broadband access, clean water, and electrical grid renewal.

The president listed projects funded by the IIJA, including $25 million to provide the Rio Salado Bike and Pedestrian Bridge in Maricopa County, Arizona, and $89 billion to expand I-395 in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (CHIPS) allotted $52 billion for scientific research projects aimed at strengthening U.S. capacity to produce semiconductors and other high-tech components.

CHIPS has produced $300 billion in private investment in creating manufacturing plants for microchips, electric vehicles, and EV batteries, Biden said.

“We’re creating good jobs you can raise a family on. And most don’t require a college degree; jobs [where] people don’t have to leave home in search of opportunity.”

As an example, Biden cited a $20 billion investment by Intel to build semiconductor factories near Columbus, Ohio, which he said would produce 7,000 jobs with an average wage of $130,000.

In health care, the president said his initiatives have reduced the cost of insulin from $400-to-$600 per month to just $35. Biden said that savings reduced the cost of Medicare by $159 billion per year.

The president referred to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) as the biggest-ever investment in the climate. The $738 billion IRA is intended to reduce the deficit, lower prescription drug costs, and increase domestic production of “clean” energy.

Republican Criticism

Republicans have roundly criticized each of the spending plans as wasteful, misguided, and unfunded, though two of them gained bipartisan support.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) once referred to ARPA as a blue-state bailout. “This isn’t a relief bill. It takes care of Democrats’ political allies while it fails to deliver for American families,” McCarthy at a Feb. 26, 2021, press conference. He was House Minority Leader at the time.

McCarthy noted that 91 percent of ARPA funding was designated for non-health-related projects.

Indeed, the money has been used for a variety of purposes with scant relation to pandemic recovery, including the construction of pickleball courts in Michigan and a soccer stadium in New Jersey.

Amy Pazahanick returns a shot to Sam Goldenherrsh at The Tennis and Pickleball Club in Newport Beach, Calif., on Sept. 4, 2022. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Republicans blamed the inflation of 2022 on ARPA’s massive spending. No Republican in either chamber voted for the measure.

Republicans likewise criticized the IRA. “The mislabeled ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will do nothing to bring the economy out of stagnation and recession, but it will raise billions of dollars in taxes on Americans making less than $400,000.” Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a July 30, 2022, statement.

The law passed with no Republican support. Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.) introduced legislation to repeal the IRA on Feb. 2.

Thirteen House Republicans voted for the IIJA despite fierce opposition by party leaders.

CHIPS likewise enjoyed bipartisan support but drew criticism for increasing the federal debt.

Grin and Spend

Despite Republican criticisms of these programs, GOP-led states nevertheless accepted the windfall grants they provided and are spending the money.

Oklahoma state Rep. Greg McCortney summed up what many Republican state legislators may have felt.

“Not accepting these funds and allowing them to be spent in some other state or spent somewhere else by the federal government is not in the best interest of the state of Oklahoma,” McCortney said in a Sept. 28, 2022, press conference.

Funds from each of Biden’s spending projects have provided benefits to communities around the country in housing, business, development, infrastructure, and health care, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Biden characterized these legislative achievements as the beginning of a bright future of economic growth.

“This is the work we’re going to continue to do together, Democrats and Republicans. And we’re proving in every county in America, that our best days are ahead of us, not behind us.”