“What’s the secret of Biden’s success?” asked New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in April. The secret appears to be having a favorable media which refuses to document your failures.
Despite the legacy media presenting Biden as a popular and accomplished incumbent, the reality is his presidency called a lid on accomplishments early on. Here is a brief sampling of his many failures to this point in his first term:
Having 70% of Americans vaccinated by Independence Day
The White House admitted in early June that Joe Biden will likely miss his goal of having 70% of American adults inoculated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by the Fourth of July. Media coverage focused on “vaccine hesitancy … particularly in the South and Midwest,” Republican strongholds. “All 16 States That Have Hit Biden’s Vaccine Goal Voted For Him In 2020,” reported Forbes. That leaves nine states Biden carried. Black voters and Hispanics, which Biden carried handily, are also underrepresented among the vaccinated — perhaps because they remember Kamala Harris warning that the vaccine may not be safe during the 2020 presidential campaign?
Shipping Tens of Millions of Vaccines to Other Countries
The 70% vaccination goal is actually the second vaccination promise Joe Biden has failed to deliver as president. He vowed that the United States would export tens of millions of vaccines to other nations with “no strings attached” by month’s end. “Today, the [a]dministration announced its framework for sharing at least 80 million U.S. vaccine doses globally by the end of June and the plan for the first 25 million doses,” read a White House statement dated June 3. During his trip to Europe a week later, Biden promised that exporting a half-billion doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine would make the U.S. an “arsenal of vaccines.” But the Associated Press reported on Monday that “fewer than 10 million doses have been shipped around the world.” The administration blamed “regulatory and other hurdles,” as though the administration had no control over federal regulations.
Repealing Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts
In May 2019, Biden told an audience that the “first thing I’d do is repeal those Trump tax cuts.” A month later, Biden promised, “Folks, on day one, I will move to eliminate Trump’s tax cuts.” Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, “a typical family of four earning the median family income of $73,000 saw a tax cut of over $2,000 – a 58% reduction in federal taxes,” according to Americans for Tax Reform.
Thus far, the Biden administration has made little effort to bring his tax-hiking vision to pass, a failure many Americans are likely grateful for.
Raising the Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour
Joe Biden made raising the minimum wage a key plank of his campaign in his very first speech after throwing his hat in the ring. It is “well past time that the minimum wage nationally be a minimum of $15,” said Biden in April 2019. Although the move could cost as many as two million jobs, Biden tried to include it in the only major legislative accomplishment of his presidency: the COVID-19 “relief” package.
But eight Senate Democrats voted against the proposal. By the time the Senate Parliamentarian excluded that provision from the bill, Biden had already declared the minimum wage hike “dead.”
Forming a National Police Commission
In a campaign speech last June 2, Biden pledged, “In the first 100 days of my presidency, I have committed to creating a national police oversight commission.”
But a mere 81 days into his presidency, Biden reneged. “Based on close, respectful consultation with partners in the civil rights community, the administration made the considered judgment that a police commission, at this time, would not be the most effective way to deliver on our top priority,” said Susan Rice, director of the Domestic Policy Council. Instead of keeping his campaign promise by establishing a commission — which was entirely under his control — Joe Biden erratically shifted responsibility to Congress and focused on his new goal.
Passing a National Police Restriction Act by the Anniversary of George Floyd’s Death
Two weeks after nixing the National Police Commission, Joe Biden told Congress to pass a sweeping national law, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, post haste. He said, “Let’s get it done next month, by the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death,” less than one month away.
Yet the legislation failed to pass Congress by May 25, when Biden had the Floyd family visit the White House for what was to be the bill’s signing ceremony. Floyd’s brother, Philonise, called on lawmakers to pass a bill restricting police officers even as gunshots rang out at “George Floyd Square,” the site of Floyd’s death.
Despite President Biden’s thin record of accomplishments and fat stack of failures, the media have keep presenting him as a success. “For the new president, the first 100 days were needles, checks and normalcy,” the Times said. “President Biden’s first 100 days in office have been aggressive on policy, but subdued on style,” said The Hill, dubbing it the “antithesis of Trump.”
That’s true, both in its success and in its media coverage. During his first 100 days in office, Donald Trump nominated and confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, advanced the KeystoneXL Pipeline, and so changed the economic environment that the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 20,000 for the first time. Yet New York Times columnist David Leonhardt wrote, “Trump’s supporters deserve to be disappointed, and his opponents should be cheered by how unsuccessful his agenda has been,” facetiously dubbing Donald Trump’s first 100 days “the worst on record.” CNN reported that Trump “produced one of the least-prolific first 100 day debuts of any president in modern history.”
Joe Biden’s presidency has yet to hold a candle to the substantive triumphs of his Republican predecessor, but the media have presented Biden’s serial failures as a rousing triumph. The real Biden record proves that reporters are promoting an agenda and popularizing a presidency, not measuring his objective achievements.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.