He has promised that his administration will use every lever of the federal government to address what he calls four "converging crises": the pandemic, economic instability, racial injustice and climate change. The belief has defined how he has navigated his first days in office, as he has necessarily been focused on curing the ills of a complex plague on the nation - a virus that killed more than 565,000 people and claimed millions of jobs while highlighting and aggravating inequalities in health outcomes and wealth. One of Biden's most consistent principles through his half-century in politics is that the federal government can be a powerful tool in Americans' lives. If he is successful, he will usher in a new era of muscular government. The polarization Biden faces is exceptionally bitter, as millions of Republicans still believe he stole the election and cling to Donald Trump's divisive ideas about race, immigration and the pandemic.īiden "knows that he has an enormous amount to do and limited votes in Congress, so he is going to maximize the window," said a Biden ally who worked in the Obama administration. Roosevelt could also be more certain about his mandate for change: He won a whopping 472 electoral votes, compared to Biden's 306. President Franklin Roosevelt signs New Deal emergency banking legislation on March 9, 1933. Biden is a 36-year veteran of the Senate, and no one has had to explain to him that the narrow margins mean he has little room for dissent within his own party or that his agenda would be doomed if Republicans take the majority in either chamber in next year's midterm elections. They control the Senate only by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote, and they occupy just 51 percent of the House seats. FDR's Democrats controlled more than 70 percent of the House seats and more than 60 percent of the Senate seats.īiden and his party have a much more tenuous grip on power. But in many ways, his political challenge is even more daunting than Roosevelt's. "A president traditionally has the power to get things done immediately after the election, when his favorability ratings are usually high."īiden is riding high polling consistently suggests that majorities approve of his performance and many of his policies. Baker, who was President Ronald Reagan's first chief of staff and treasury secretary before becoming President George H.W. "The first hundred days have always been important to every White House, especially those of a first-term president," said James A. And it shows how he has embraced Roosevelt's "first 100 days" benchmark, using the time frame to clearly measure progress on the coronavirus pandemic. In that sense, it has been an especially ambitious 100 days, building on the dozens of promises he made during the campaign. as children.Īnd he is prodding Congress to move forward on his "American Jobs Plan" and "American Families Plan," which could push trillions more dollars into the economy. His flurry of executive actions, many aimed at undoing his predecessor's legacy, include re-entry into the Paris climate accords, expansion of access to Obamacare and new support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, President Barack Obama's program for undocumented people who were brought to the U.S. Roosevelt signed a record 76 laws in his first 100 days in office.īut Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief measure is the most expensive law ever enacted during the first phase of a presidency. He has made no discernible difference in the organizational charts of the federal government and has signed only seven bills into law, tying him with George W. WASHINGTON - By traditional measures - number of laws enacted and programs created or abolished - President Joe Biden's first 100 days in office look relatively sleepy. How a man guided by a deep belief in an active federal government has navigated his early days at the helm of a nation in crisis.
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