What Has Biden Done? Here is a Long List of Accomplishments
In their cause to avoid being accused of having a "liberal bias," the media could be repeating the mistakes of 2016.
Image credit: Colin Lloyd via Unsplash
There's a common misconception that mainstream media outlets have an overt bias toward Democrats.
This all started in the late 1970s with "pioneer of conservative talk radio" Bob Grant, who paved the way in the post-Fairness Doctrine 1980s for right-wing hate media personalities like Rush Limbaugh.
After President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act, media mogul Rupert Murdoch found the field ripe for extending his cancerous empire, fulfilling Roger Ailes's dream of creating the 100-percent 24/7 "fair and balanced" cable television channel we know as Fox News.
Joining it today are cable channels One America News (OAN), Sinclair Media-owned stations, Murdoch-owned newspaper The New York Post, and scores of internet sites, like Breitbart; The Epoch Times; The Blaze; The Daily Caller; The Washington Times; The Washington Examiner; Town Hall; and Meta, the social media site formerly known as Facebook.
These right-wing outlets have done such a successful job hammering home the lie that any other mainstream outlet not them is de facto "liberal" that the presumably "liberal" outlets tack further to the right to avoid being accused of it.
This obsession with placating their more truculent competitors has ironically led "liberal" ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN to adopt a more right-leaning bias.
So we shouldn't be surprised when the corporate media trains its attention on any tidbit of negative news coming out of the current White House, particularly economic, ignoring the myriad successes the Biden administration has achieved in just one year.
And there are a lot of successes.
A lot.
Here are just some the Democratic party can boast of this first year of the Biden administration with a congressional majority:
5.6 million jobs created and a historic decline in unemployment.
The most historic investment in infrastructure since the New Deal programs of Franklin Roosevelt.
The American Rescue Package that, among other benefits, will cut child poverty in half.
The end of the 20-year occupation of Afghanistan.
Need some more?
Below are just a few (okay, more than a few) of the most consequential.
Education
Committed $350 billion state and local aid for which $130 billion must be for safe reopening of schools, and $40 billion for higher education, half of which must go to student aid
Initiated DOJ investigations into threats against school board members and school personnel
Housing
$46.5B in housing assistance that includes $21.5 billion in rental assistance, $10 billion for homeowner relief, $5billion for section-8 vouchers, $5 billion to fight homelessness, $5 billion for utilities assistance
Healthcare
2-year Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credit expansion that ended the "subsidy cliff"– expanded coverage and cutting costs for millions
Required insurers to cover pre-exposure prophylaxis medicine (PrEP), an HIV prevention drug, and all related clinical visits
Extended the ACA open enrollment period from 45 to 76 days with a new year-round special enrollment period for low-income enrollees
Restored Navigator program to assist with ACA sign up
Removed separate billing requirement for ACA abortion coverage
Eliminated a regulation allowing states to privatize exchanges
Eliminated all Medicaid work requirements
Permanently removed the restriction on mail access to abortion pills
Rescinded Mexico City Policy (global gag rule) barring international non-profit corporations from receiving US funding that provided abortion counseling or referrals
Allowed states to extend coverage through Medicaid and the (Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to post-partum women for one year (up from 60 days)
$6 billion to Indian Health Services
$17 billion to the Veterans' Administration (VA), including $1B to forgive veteran medical debt
$3 billion to address mental health and substance abuse
Prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ patients
Judiciary
Confirmed 42 lifetime federal judges (the most in 40 years), 13 circuit court judges, and 29 district court judges
Named first openly LBGTQ woman to sit on an appeals court, first Muslim American federal judge, and record number of black women and public defenders
Environment
Committed $100 million for environmental justice initiatives, $1.1 billion for Everglades restoration, $100 million for environmental justice initiatives
Signed a 30-gigawatt offshore wind plan that includes the largest ever offshore wind lease sale in NY and NJ, offshore wind lease sales in California, expedited offshore wind projects, $3 billion in Dept. of Energy loans for offshore wind projects, and $230 million in offshore wind port infrastructure
Established a solar plan to slash in half the cost of solar by 2030, including $128 million in funding to lower costs and improve solar technology
Forged a multi-agency partnership to expedite clean energy projects on federal land
Instructed Dept. of Energy to strengthen appliance efficiency rules
Finalized the rule to prevent cutting corners on efficiency standards
Finalized the rule to expedite appliance efficiency standards
Repealed a federal architecture executive order making sustainable federal buildings harder to build
Reversed size cuts and restored protections to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monuments
Pandemic Relief
Extended the public health emergency through at least April 15, 2022
$50 billion in funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for COVID disaster relief that includes vaccine funding and states' reimbursement for COVID costs, retroactively to March 2020
Committed $47.8 billion for testing, $1.75 billion for COVID genome sequencing, $8.5 billion to CDC for vaccines, $7.6 billion to state and local health departments, $7.6 billion to community health centers
Administered over 500 million vaccine shots through 90,000 free vaccination sites
Raised federal reimbursement from $23 to $40 per shot for vaccine sites
Deployed 6000 troops for initial vaccination
Provided cash incentives, free rides, and free childcare for the initial vaccination drive
Donated 400 million vaccines internationally, committed 1.2 billion
Contributed $2 billion to COVAX for global vaccinations
Funded expansion of vaccine manufacturing in India and South Africa
Implemented vaccine mandate for federal employees, contractors, and employees at healthcare providers that receive Medicare/Medicaid funding.
Implemented vaccine/test mandate for large businesses (SC struck down)
Invoked DPA for testing, vaccine, PPE manufacturing
Implemented a federal mask mandate for federal buildings, federal employees, and public transportation
Implemented test requirement for international travel
Implemented joint FDA-NIH expedited process to approve at home tests more quickly
Required over 20,000 free federal testing sites
Provided 8 at-home tests per month to be reimbursed by insurance
Secured one billion at-home tests to be available for free by mail and 50 million at-home tests available free at community health centers
Secured 25 million high-quality reusable masks for low-income residents in early 2021 and 400 million free N95 masks at pharmacies and health centers
Deployed military medical teams to assist overburdened hospitals
Rejoined the World Health Organization (WHO)
LGBTQ
Ended the ban on transgender soldiers in the military
Reversed the Trump administration limits on the Bostock ruling and fully enforced it
Prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ patients in healthcare
Prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ families in housing under the Fair Housing Act
Prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ people in the financial system to access loans or credit
Declared the Justice Department (DOJ) will enforce Title IX that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in education.
Revoked the ban on federal diversity training
Instructed the VA to review its policies to remove barriers to care for transgender veterans
Confirmed the first Senate LGBTQ cabinet secretary
Extended birthright citizenship to children of same-sex couples born abroad
Permitted the State Department to allow non-binary Americans to use an "X" gender designation on passports
Criminal Justice
Banned new contracts with private prisons for criminal prisons
Re-established the Justice Department's use of police department consent degrees
Investigated police department pattern and practice in Phoenix, Louisville, and Minneapolis
Banned chokeholds and limited no-knock raids among federal law enforcement
Civil Rights
Banned modern-day redlining
Doubled DOJ Civil Rights Division staff
Increased percentage of federal contract for small disadvantaged businesses from 5% to 15% ($100B in additional contracts over 5 years)
Sued TX and GA over voting laws
Sued TX over abortion law
Sued GA over prison abuse
Signed law making Juneteenth a federal holiday
Signed an executive order to use the federal government to improve voting access through federal programs and departments.
Signed the COVID-19 Hate Crime Act making more resources available to support hate crime reporting
Signed an executive order for diversity in the federal workplace
Increased federal employment opportunities for the previously incarcerated
For a complete list, visit the website What Biden Has Done.
While there is more–a lot more–to do and should have been done, Democrats have done more for the American people in 12 months than republicans have the past 40 years.
But if we just listened to the corporate for-profit media, we would assume Democrats are bumbling around the halls of the Capitol trying to find the exits.
In their cause to avoid being accused of having a "liberal bias," the media could be repeating the mistakes of 2016.