President Joe Biden: ‘Miraculous’ dealmaker or ‘consistently inconsistent’? What experts say two years in

As Joe Biden enters his third year in office, The Independent digs deep into how the president did on key issues like labour, climate, legislation, inflation, Covid and civil rights. Josh Marcus introduces the series

Joe Biden has had a successful, vexing, unprecedented first two years in office (The Independent)

Joe Biden is a Washington survivor, the oldest ever US president and one of the longest-serving senators in the history of Congress.

How has he managed to last? By changing.

During his five decades in national office, voters watched as Mr Biden went from a backslapping, tough-on-crime Democrat to a passionate speaker on global warming, racial equity, and abortion rights. These days, he usually manages to fall in the exact middle of a Democratic caucus ranging from socialists to coal boosters.

So, as the president enters his third year in office, how should we remember his term at its halfway point? The Republican takeover of the House likely signals the end of Mr Biden’s ability to pass new laws, so answering that question is a decent start on evaluating his presidency as a whole.

Summarising a Washington chameleon like Mr Biden under one headline misses the achievements – and shortcomings – of one of the most successful and interesting Democrats in US history. Sometimes it can seem like we’re dealing with a variety of characters who all happen to live in the White House.

Introducing the six Joe Bidens.

Biden no 1: The dealmaker

When President Barack Obama needed a seasoned congressional hand to pull off a major piece of legislation, he sent Joe Biden.

Somehow, even with razor-thin majorities in both the House and Senate, President Biden has scored major pieces of legislation on infrastructure, climate, semiconductor manufacturing, marriage rights and gun safety.

“By modern standards, it was miraculous,” Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way, tells White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell with President Joe Biden at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Kentucky in January (AP)

Biden no 2: The unlikely climate warrior

His name isn’t typically associated with climate activism, but Joe Biden may pull off the surprise feat of being the most consequential climate surprise in US history so far.

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) pours $369bn (£298bn) into decarbonising all parts of the US economy, whether that’s through encouraging wind turbine manufacturing or electrical vehicle recharging statements.

That all sounds great, but look a little deeper, and even bold action like the IRA won’t be enough for the US to meet international climate goals.

“The bad news ... is that in no single year, will they come close to hitting the rates needed to be in line with 2025 or 2030 targets,” Roger Pielke Jr, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, tells senior climate correspondent Louise Boyle.

Biden no 3: The apathetic pandemic president

He’s not encouraging Americans to inject disinfectant or going to war with Dr Anthony Fauci like Donald Trump did, but Joe Biden has overseen a different kind of pandemic neglect, experts tell reporter Alex Woodward.

Public health guidance appears to tell vulnerable Americans and disabled people “you’re on your own,” according to Georgetown University’s public health policy expert Lawrence O Gostin.

“When nobody’s wearing a mask, when fewer and fewer people are being vaccinated, and when Congress won’t lift a finger to provide a dime for prevention and preparedness, that’s exactly what we’re telling people right now,” he told The Independent.

Biden receives his Covid-19 booster during an event in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus in October last year (AP)

The political momentum to stop it is gone, but the pandemic isn’t going anywhere, causing hundreds of Americans to die each day and putting immunocompromised people at extra risk.

Biden no 4: The ‘consistently inconsistent’ civil rights ally

The Biden administration took office amid multiple civil rights crisis, as millions of Americans marched in the street to protest police violence in 2020, then hordes of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to prevent a free and fair election from concluding.

When it comes to civil rights and racial justice, Mr Biden has been “consistently inconsistent”, death penalty expert Professor Austin Sarat of Amherst College tells reporter Josh Marcus. The Biden White House has often made proud symbolic gestures on capital punishment or policing, only to quietly continue with the status quo.

Biden no 5: The ‘most pro-union’ president?

The president campaigned on being “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen”, but labour leaders tell The Independent that’s often seemed more like a slogan than a reality.

After more than two years of negotiations between railway unions and major carriers, Mr Biden threw his weight behind a congressional deal, passed in December, which rail workers described as a “one-two punch” and a betrayal because it didn’t include long-sought protections for sick leave.

Biden arrives to sign railroad legislation, providing a resolution to avert a nationwide rail shutdown, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House last month (Reuters)

“Don’t tell me who you are; show me. His actions speak louder than his words. And I don’t think this is a pro-labour decision – to put us back to work without addressing the issues that we were asking to be addressed,” Ross Grooters, a locomotive engineer and co-chair of Railroad Workers United in Iowa, tells Senior US correspondent Richard Hall in his piece on Biden’s labour record.

Biden no 6: Tamer of inflation

The Biden administration, after months of economic pain, has also managed to help tame inflation, but the president’s economic challenges aren’t over yet.

“If we’re focused on why inflation is as high as it is, I’d put at the very top of the list the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the surge in energy and other commodity prices. And the pandemic and the supply chains disruptions and disruptions in the labour market,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, tells Washington bureau chief Eric Garcia.

Closer to home, there’s a brewing debt ceiling crisis that could see the US unable to pay its bills by this summer, according to the Treasury secretary Janet Yellen.

As we head into another unpredictable year, which of the six Joe Bidens will show up? Only time will tell.