Now that Biden has ceded the weight of the Democratic Presidential candidacy to Kamala Harris, we need to take stock of what he and she have accomplished together. Harris, as Vice-President, may have stepped back from the “presidential” spotlight, but much of what was accomplished bears her imprint.
One of Biden’s and Harris’ most important accomplishments will likely be the Infrastructure Bill of 2021. Presidents for decades have talked about infrastructure and the need to repair roads, bridges, railways, and water systems, but it was usually all talk.
In fact, during Donald Trump’s presidency, it became a running joke that he periodically would announce that “infrastructure week” would be coming up, but somehow nothing ever got done to repair any roads, bridges, etc.
However, the Biden/Harris administration worked successfully with Congress and convinced enough legislators to invest in improvements to our infrastructure that will benefit ordinary people for decades to come. Former President Trump campaigned against the bill, but 32 Republicans were persuaded to vote for it.
Hypocritical Republicans who voted against the bill are now taking credit for the projects in their states, even when they get called out for their hypocrisy.
In Oklahoma, projects now underway with funds from the Infrastructure Bill of 2021 include highway improvements, airport upgrades, flood management, clean water programs, school bus replacements, a lithium refinery, battery manufacturing, recycling, and solar facilities. These investments are worth over a billion dollars ($1,171,520,000 to be exact) to the state. Oklahoma is projected to receive over $5-6 billion during the life of these projects (www. whitehouse.gov/wp-content/ uploads/2023/10/Oklahoma-Fact-Sheet.pdf.)
Another vital part of infrastructure is better, faster internet access for rural areas. “Bidenomics” (the catch-all term for this administration’s contributions to the nation’s strong economy) also includes $797 million to improve access to the ‘net in rural Oklahoma (https://www.oklahoman.com/ story/news/politics/government/ 2024/08/03/oklahomabroadband- equity-access-deployment- funds-800-million).
A less understood, but vitally important bill, the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, supports American semiconductor production instead of relying on the Chinese to produce these vital computer parts, as this nation has done for far too long.
The Build Back Better Act, as initially proposed, could not pass without bipartisan support but, after months of negotiation, was passed as the Inflation Reduction Act. Still, it squeaked by with Vice President Harris’ vote to break the Senate’s 50-50 party-line impasse.
This bill aims to reduce the federal deficit and increase corporate taxes. (The statutory tax rate for corporations, according to the Tax Policy Center, is 39%, but the effective rate— what is actually paid—is only 18%.)
During the Biden/Harris administration, over fifteen million jobs have been created, inflation is down, unemployment is down, and the market is topping records (https://www.commerce. gov/tags/us-economy.)
Yet, shopping for food is painful. Soon, the price of grapes may be so much per grape rather than per pound. When Covid caused supply-chain problems, many of us suspected that as soon as corporations could get away with increasing their profit margins and blaming it on Covid, the inflated prices would never come down without a fight.
However, corporate profiteering may not be the culprit we all think; maybe it is just easiest to blame. Since Kamala has pledged to stop price gouging, I believe she will get to the bottom of the problems.
In contrast, Trump will certainly refuse to hold corporations to account. And he will further reduce their tax rate, as he did during his first administration.
Our odds of life’s becoming more affordable for average folk the next few years are better under Harris than under Trump.
History tells us that Democrats deliver.