Biden: Missed opportunities

Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, 2021, where he talked about unity and major legislative goals. However, his administration has been plagued by tensions within the Democratic Party, highly controversial foreign policy decisions and legislative failures.

President Biden has faced criticism over soaring gas prices, inflation and his policies as his approval rating sank to 35 per cent in a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University. On the other hand, his predecessor’s approval ratings were better than him after one year into office; Donald Trump’s was 41 per cent, Barack Obama’s was 57 per cent, George Bush’s was 68 per cent and Bill Clinton’s was 49 per cent. What is more worrying here is the trajectory; he started the presidency on high, in July his approval ratings were 59 per cent and in September it fell to 50 per cent after the disaster in Afghanistan and now, an all-time low, 35 per cent.

The Biden administration is now facing five major governance challenges. They are the resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic, the supply chain crisis, high inflation, rising energy prices and the migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border. Although the White House pushed Congress to pass the American Rescue Plan Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, it’s now experiencing the “Biden Bubble.”

The US Department of Labor announced on January 12 that the country’s consumer price index rose 7.0 per cent in December, the highest increase since June 1982. The spread of the Omicron variant has cast a shadow over the US economy. The World Bank has cut economic growth forecast again.

According to Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, over the past year, Biden has talked like Obama but walked like Trump on foreign policy. “But as he lacks the eloquence and bullishness of his predecessors, the president has fallen flat through and through.”

He further said that Biden has failed to keep promises, and kept issuing checks his administration could not cash. And although he criticised Trump’s policies, he so far kept much of them in place. Any good reason why the US has not rejoined UNESCO yet? For its fanciness, Biden’s “foreign policy for the middle class” turned out, like Trump’s, rather nationalistic and protectionist. His commitment to make America more credible and respected around the world has failed as miserably as Trump’s commitment to “make America great again”.

In the Middle East, he has re-emphasised the importance of the two-state solution but also gave Israel the green light to do what it will to finish off Palestine through repression and illegal settlement.

The only issue where Biden actually diverged from Trump was the Iran nuclear deal, which his administration has been trying to revive, albeit incompetently.

As for transatlantic relations, Biden promised to reverse Trump’s indifference towards Europe and his insolence towards NATO but has proved just as cold and distant towards the continent.

He made the decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan with hardly any coordination with the European allies, a withdrawal that proved an utter disaster in its implementation, forcing US soldiers and personnel to basically flee the country in humiliation.

And in a humiliating and abrupt move, the Biden administration stiffed France out of a $40 billion arms deal by scuttling its submarine sale to Australia. Biden later admitted that his administration’s handling of the affair was clumsy and lacked grace.

Biden has also failed to get European powers, notably France and Germany, solidly behind US policy against a more bellicose Russia that has been amassing forces on its borders with Ukraine. In fact, since Biden became president, a bigger gap opened up between the US and its Western allies over how to deal with Russia.

After the EU was sidelined from talks held last week between Russia and the US, French President Emmanuel Macron has said the EU “must open its own talks with Russia rather than rely on Washington” in what seemed like a snub to the Biden administration.

According to a research fellow at the Charhar Institute in Beijing, Zhao Minghao, The supply chain crisis is closely related to the US-launched trade war. Yet, the Biden administration is hesitant to make any change in its trade policy for fear of losing votes, and this, in turn, is hindering Biden’s economic performance. Even though US Trade Representative Katherine Tai has outlined a “worker-centered trade policy,” maintaining high tariffs on goods from countries like China has forced ordinary working families in the US to bear a huge cost.

The policy Tai has been stressing may also discriminate against American workers because it’s likely to only benefit workers in traditional manufacturing industries, like those related to steel and aluminum production.

Biden administration also has been criticised over Covid-19 test kit shortages and long lines at testing sites around the country last month, which coincided with the rapid spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Biden promised to expedite the post-pandemic economic recovery, and also talked up his administration’s efforts to combat the coronavirus, including recent initiatives to provide free at-home testing and N95 masks to people across the country.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures show that 67 per cent of eligible Americans above five years of age are now fully vaccinated, and nearly 80 per cent have received at least one dose.

But vaccination efforts plateaued months into the Biden administration, hitting a wall of vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes fuelled by misinformation. As of mid-December, 15 per cent of all American adults had not received a single jab, according to government data.

While Biden won the most votes of any US presidential candidate in history when he defeated Trump in 2020, his ambitious plan to expand the social safety net and reverse some of his predecessor’s hardline policies has hit setbacks on Capitol Hill.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, dealt a big blow to the administration when he announced that he would not support Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, a giant spending bill that aimed to boost social programmes and investments in green energy.

Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema have also voiced opposition to Democrats’ efforts to abolish a Senate rule known as the filibuster in their push to pass legislation that would protect US voting rights.

To pass voting rights bills, Democrats needed to abolish or at least weaken the filibuster, which enables the minority party in the 100-member Senate to block major legislation by requiring a 60-vote threshold for bills to pass.

To top all of this, Biden could soon be a wartime leader, things are not looking any better in Ukraine. In fact, more weapons are arriving, the Russians have moved new reconnaissance helicopters to the border. On the other hand, the US is asking Baltic States to ship US weapons to Ukraine.

The Ukraine-Russia conflict is shaping up to be Biden’s biggest challenge yet. In Afghanistan, it was about pulling out soldiers, a yes or no decision plus he could blame his predecessor Trump. Same with the pandemic, Trump was so bad that Biden got away with a bare minimum. But with Ukraine, that is not going to work, it is not a yes or no call, it has nothing to do with Donald Trump.

As of now, Biden does think Putin wants war but he does not rule out a stern test. According to Biden, “I think he does not want any full-blown war. Do I think he will test the United States and NATO? Yes, I think he will. He will pay a serious and dear price for it that he does not think now and he will regret having done it.”

On the other hand, the Kremlin has hit back at Biden’s comments. They say it will further escalate the situation in Ukraine. So, for all that bravado, Joe Biden has given Russia exactly what they want; an excuse for escalation.

To sum it up, two words best describe Joe Biden’s first year in office, “Missed opportunities”. He could have nurtured Afghan democracy but he chose not to, he could have revived the Iran nuclear deal but he failed to, he could have pushed for equitable vaccine distribution, he could have ended the pandemic again he chose not to. Elections do not determine a leader’s legacy, what they do after the elections that determines their legacy and going by the first year, Biden’s trajectory is not inspiring.