Biden came into office in the middle of a Covid crisis substantially caused by the previous administration (which he then was unfairly blamed for the effects of by people arguing in bad faith). During the first two years of Biden's presidency the Democrats had a tied 50–50 Senate (including 2 prima donna Senators who repeatedly undermined Democrats' legislative priorities) and a narrow House majority. During the second two years they had a 51–49 Senate majority and lost control of the House. They never had the votes for anything like the ACA. But within the very difficult constraints of a 50–50 Senate with no possibility of abolishing the filibuster (i.e. requiring 60 votes, and thus significant GOP support, to pass any legislation), the Dems were remarkably effective in 2021–2022, exceeding my expectations.

If you want to see sweeping legislation, you have to elect a Congress that with enough votes to pass it. Blaming Biden for not having the votes is an expression of political cluelessness.

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r00fus 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> During the first two years of Biden's presidency the Democrats had a tied 50–50 Senate (including 2 prima donna Senators who repeatedly undermined Democrats' legislative priorities) and a narrow House majority.

Look up the Senate Parliamentarian and how the Democrats used them as an excuse to not get anything done.

They could have played hardball with their rogue Senators but they didn't.

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raw_anon_1111 21 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Again what did he do? The Covid vaccine was created and approved before he was elected.

You really think people were excited about Biden like Obama or Clinton?

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1659447091 21 hours ago | parent [-]

> Again what did he do?

Inflation Reduction Act [0][1]

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act [2][3]

CHIPS and Science Act [4]

He worked to use our tax dollars to spur re-investment in America. From factory construction and utility jobs to grid resilience and innovation. Not to mention that zero to few Republicans voted for these, yet they are the largest benefactors. Texas massive growth spurt in Green energy can thank Biden, but they won't even though they are happy to take the infrastructure investments and enjoy the cheaper energy and jobs. I'll just be happy if I dont have to deal with another Great Texas Freeze.

Also, and even though, the coal mining communities didn't vote for him he made sure to single out investment specifically to coal communities "it announced $428 million in grants for 14 projects in coal communities, creating 1,900 jobs and leveraging $500 million in private investments."

Those also include tax reform (to collect from super-rich tax evaders, expire the deep corporate tax cuts etc) and prescription drug reform to lower prices among other things like investing in green energy projects for low income communities. He brought investment back into this country without sucker punching our allies.

Imo, that's what my tax dollars are for, for reinvestment back into building this country -- not to give rich business friends that donate meme coins to a family account extra large tax cuts or giving bonuses for rounding up brown people (including US citizens - google if you want links) and empower a federal immigration force to throw out any integrity and character they had before being told to make a spectacle.

Anyway there is a lot in there is you care to read up on it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_Reduction_Act

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_Reduction_Act#Projec...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure_Investment_and_...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure_Investment_and_...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIPS_and_Science_Act

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raw_anon_1111 20 hours ago | parent [-]

How is Intel doing these days? They have already kicked out one poor performing CEO and no company wants to use Intel for chip fabs. Nvidia is partnering with Intel on design - not fabrication.

How much do you want to bet that in four years nothing he did will have made a difference and Trump is going to undo it? That wouldn’t have been an issue if Biden had stepped aside and announced he wasn’t going to run for reelection earlier. Again results count. The few things he “accomplished” are going to be undone because he didnt step aside.

And all of his “prescription reforms” weren’t put into law and were easy to undo by the next administration.

The Republicans no matter how hard they try can’t kill the ACA and are probably going to vote to increase funding. The ACA would have been a lot easier to kill if Obama hadn’t won reelection. Biden should have known he couldn’t win.

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1659447091 20 hours ago | parent [-]

What Trump does is on him, not Biden. You asked what Biden did.

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raw_anon_1111 20 hours ago | parent [-]

The ACA is an accomplishment that stood the test of time. Everything that Biden did will be inconsequential because he didn’t step aside to try to secure what he did.

Not to mention the Chips act just threw money at a flailing Intei without any strategy. There was a strategy behind Obama’s getting through the financial crises and the ACA

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jacobolus 20 hours ago | parent [-]

The ACA was passed with 60 Democratic Senate votes and not a single GOP vote in House or Senate.

Biden had a 50–50 Senate, counting Manchin and Sinema among the 50. If you think he "should have" passed similar legislation and consider his failure to do so to be some kind of failure of willpower, then you fundamentally don't understand how our political system works. If the Dems don't have the votes, it's nonsensical to blame them for not being able to pass legislation that is opposed by 100% of the GOP.

The ACA was a big accomplishment, and it managed to go through during the exactly 72 working days since 1980 when the Democrats had such a majority in Congress and the Presidency. (We all owe an incredible debt of gratitude for that to Nancy Pelosi, who was personally responsible for getting it over the finish line after Ted Kennedy died in office.) If the Dems consistently had large congressional majorities, they could make much more progress. If you want to see that happen, make sure they get the votes.

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raw_anon_1111 19 hours ago | parent [-]

I have repeatedly said what I think he should have done - announced after the mid terms that he wasn’t going to seek re-election, let there be a real primary and if another Democrat could have been elected they could have solidified the foundation he set.

Excusing that is like commending a surgeon for saving a life and then not washing his hands during follow up and killing the patient allowing the wound to get infected.

And why haven’t the democrats had a platform that could convince enough people to vote for them in the Senate since then?

The Democratic majority didn’t happen by accident. Howard Dean pushed for the “50 state strategy” in 2008. The current Democrats are feckless

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jacobolus 18 hours ago | parent [-]

In other words, you think the Dems "should" have won the election in 2024, and that they didn't was entirely down to on Biden's personal decisions. Because they didn't win that election, everything that the GOP and voters do afterward is now Biden's fault personally.

The first part is a counter-factual hypothesis that seems wrong, which you keep insisting on without any evidence. The second part is thoroughly fallacious.

To first order, the summary is that you don't think Biden or his administration deserves credit for anything they actually did, while simultaneously thinking they deserve blame for a large number of things that other people did that they were personally opposed to and worked against.

	▲	raw_anon_1111 18 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Do you really think that if there had been a real primary Kamala would have been the nominee? She was part of an unpopular administration and she couldn’t distance herself from it. You did see the first debate didn’t you? Could there possibly have beeb a worse strategy than what the DNC did? Biden doesn’t get a participation trophy for doing things that were innaffective.