During the early days of his term, some compared President Joe Biden’s goals to those of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat who enacted progressive legislation thats impacts are still visible today. But Biden had to contend with a different political landscape than Roosevelt, who enjoyed large Democratic congressional majorities. In contrast, during the 2021–23 legislative session, the Democratic majority in the Senate was so slim — split 50–50, with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as the tie-breaking vote — that two conservative Democrats successfully challenged efforts to introduce progressive legislation.
But nevertheless, Biden passed three bills with very progressive intent: the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. While some of these laws, particularly the American Rescue Plan, did contribute to one of the highest inflation rates within the past four decades —a point brought up by Republicans during the 2024 Republican National Convention — some economists suggest these bills may not be the primary cause for inflation. And they certainly produced beneficial effects for the American people. These three laws will constitute the backbone of what will be recognized as Biden’s progressive legacy.
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, signed into law in March of 2021, was the first of these three to be signed. The plan had two main goals: to implement a successful Covid-19 vaccination campaign and to provide economic assistance to families and communities struggling due to the COVID-caused economic downturn. The economic assistance portion of the plan included channeling funding into various support mechanisms, primarily in the form of welfare programs like SNAP and unemployment insurance, as well as stimulus checks of $1,400 per family. In addition, $350 billion were allocated specifically for the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program. The SLFRF program allocated money from these funds to state, local and tribal governments, who were permitted to spend the money with discretionary means, as long as the spending abided by a list of broad requirements. According to research from the Brookings Institution, these funds allowed local governments to invest in much-needed public works projects.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of November 2021 was the next to be signed into law, aiming to improve the most basic parts of American infrastructure: roads, bridges and public transportation, as well as several other progressive social initiatives. Real results can be seen around the country. Even some Republican politicians have cheered projects that the BIL has funded.
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed on Aug. 16, 2022, was a not-so-aptly-named climate bill. Intended to be the “most significant action Congress has taken on clean energy and climate change in the nation’s history,” the IRA comprised an amalgamation of different progressive reforms, but the majority had to do with promoting clean energy production and use in the United States. Despite the enormous size and cost of the IRA, it relied on tax breaks, not penalties, to encourage companies to invest more in clean energy. According to an article from Time Magazine published in mid-2023, companies had by that point channeled $270 billion into clean energy projects such as wind and solar, and according to data from the White House, at least $182 billion into electric vehicle and battery technologies.
It would be remiss not to acknowledge that Biden’s presidency was marred by several issues — a military withdrawal from Afghanistan that ended tragically, the complicated situation with his support for Israel during its war with Hamas that sharply divided people on both sides of the ideological spectrum in the U.S. and, of course, high inflation, among others. But his efforts were able to partially revive an era of the Democratic Party as a party that dreams big in order to help the most vulnerable in society and tries to find ways to make such change feasible. It’s telling that even the longtime conservative writer David Brooks wrote in a recent opinion piece, “I’ve come to appreciate the Democrats’ long-standing tradition of using a pragmatic imagination. … Over the past four years, I’ve watched the Biden administration use pragmatic imagination to funnel money to parts of America that have long been left behind.”
As we transition to four years of a president who proposes simple, incorrect solutions to complex problems well beyond his ability to solve, I want to encourage American liberals to be thankful that we had four years of a president who actually was able to implement bold proposals to improve Americans’ quality of life, and to work toward electing another in the near future.
