Joe's report card (#10)
Did he flunk or did he score? A look at Biden's first (almost) 100 days.
Joe Biden kicked off his presidency with a wave of executive orders (EOs) which are basically rules put in place by the president without Congressional approval by using their executive powers — hence, the name. I’m not sure if Biden beat Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (FDR) first-month record (30 EOs in the first 30 days) but, as of April 8, Biden has signed more than 50 EOs since he took office in late January.
He addressed all the chatter over the high volume of EOs he was churning out at the start of his term — too many presidential EOs is generally frowned upon since its a route that circumvents Congressional approval — by basically saying that he was busy trying to undo all the terrible shit left by his predecessor.
“And I want to make it clear — there’s a lot of talk, with good reason, about the number of executive orders that I have signed — I’m not making new law; I’m eliminating bad policy,” Biden said.
Anyway, I thought it would be appropriate to check on what the president’s been up to as we inch closer to the first 100 days of his term. Here are just some highlights:
📝 Public Health
After he took office amid the pandemic, one of Biden’s biggest tasks was to right the ship on the U.S.’s COVID-19 response. He put together a task force of experts and ramped up the country’s vaccination efforts, including imposing a mandate to states that they must make vaccinations available for the general public by April 19. The country has administered 150 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine within the first 75 days of his administration.
Biden also put out a number of executive orders (EOs) related to the pandemic. Among them was an executive order to stop the U.S.’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (yeah, that happened) and another executive order to mandate the use of face masks and social distancing on federal property and land, at airports, and on public modes of transport and ports of entry into the U.S.
📝 Labor
One of the most surprising moves by Biden was to get rid of high-profile anti-union Trump-appointed officials from the National Labor Relations Board. He’s since appeared to be pretty pro-union; he’s stated support for the Amazon workers trying to unionize in Alabama and support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, better known as the PRO Act bill, which labor advocates have dubbed as the most important piece of labor legislation in generations. The PRO Act has passed the House chamber and is now in the Senate. Biden also signed an executive order that restored collective bargaining power to federal employees and their unions.
📝 Gun Control
Last week, Biden introduced a handful of EOs related to gun control, including a rule to curb “ghost guns,” which are basically illegal, homemade guns without serial numbers. While gun control advocates say it’s a positive first step, it’s still not enough. It’s going to be a real uphill battle to get the big reforms that he promised during his presidential campaign since he’s going to need cooperation from a tightly divided Congress body to achieve them.
📝 Immigration
Nine out of the 11 EOs Biden has signed related to immigration were just repealing the shitty stuff Trump did. Among the EOs was Biden’s executive order to rescind Trump’s travel ban targeting largely Muslim countries and his executive order to halt funding for Trump’s border wall. Still, on the federal level, there’s much that needs to be done, particularly when it comes to processing asylum-seekers and thousands of refugee children at the U.S.’s southern border. Additionally, it seems Biden has given his Vice President Kamala Harris the gargantuan task of handling diplomacy with governments of the countries in the Northern Triangle of South America.
📝 Student Debt
Student loan debt forgiveness has been a hot policy item for Biden, even before he became president. While he expressed support for a more conservative action to deal with the country’s enormous student debt problem, there seems to be hope yet: his team said that Biden is considering an option to cancel up to $50,000 worth of student loan debt through executive order.
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The media and pundits love to measure presidencies by the “100 days” mark. Not just because it has a nice ring to it but also because of the general belief that what a president accomplishes in their first three months is a reflection of their priorities. Obviously, it’s a long way from a full presidential term so a lot of things can happen between now and then. But I think the first 100 days is a pretty good indicator of what kind of governance the public can expect from a president.
There are lots of things the Biden administration still needs to right in the long term (like criminal justice reform and foreign policy) but these first few months have shown where Biden’s focus is: rehabilitation, essentially righting the wrongs of the former Cheeto-in-Chief.
Observers have also been quite surprised at how Biden has shown a willingness to move further left than many were expecting with some skeptics writing it off as a fluke. Again, we can’t know for sure whether Biden’s left-leaning inclinations will continue through his presidency. I do think, though, that people don’t give him enough credit for his willingness to listen to people much smarter than him, even if their advice runs counter to his own ideals. As economic Stephanie Kelton, who served on the Biden-Sanders “unity taskforce,” put it:
“I think Biden is a pretty terrific messenger… It’s not communism or socialism but a kind of protectionism that he could successfully lean into to build support for a more progressive suite of economic policies.”
Moving forward, the thing to look out for will be how far both Biden and the Democratic party — with a majority in the House and a slim majority in the Senate — will go to make the most of this moment in pushing wider reforms.
WELCOME TO THE DYSTOPIA SCI-FI MOVIES WARNED US ABOUT
A video of the New York Police Department’s new robot dog has gone viral after the robodog made a showing at a Manhattan Public Housing complex. According to a report by Gothamist, the four-legged robot was brought along by officers responding to a domestic dispute. The robodog looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie — except creepier because this is real life.
The robot dog is called Spot, an invention of robotics company Boston Dynamics, and has been deployed on a number of cases by the NYPD since October. It’s unclear how many of these robocop dogs the NYPD has.
Right now, Spot robots are only equipped with sensors and lights but they can be outfitted with detachable parts for weight-lifting purposes. Boston Dynamics has stated purchases of Spot are under conditions set by the company which prohibits buyers from using it as a weapon or upgrading it to hold a weapon. But, like, who’s gonna stop the police from possibly doing that anyway?
TWEET OF THE WEEK
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
🔥 A French mayor announced that school cafeterias would temporarily be serving meatless dishes — and all hell broke loose. | Vox
🔥 The U.S. will withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, marking an end to America’s 20-year invasion of the Middle Eastern country since. | Associated Press
🔥 Remember the Suez Canal ship? Well, Egypt is basically holding the vessel hostage until it pays up for the damages its blockage caused. | CNN
🔥 It’s no secret state capitols are still deeply patriarchal, hyper-sexist environments. Now, women working in New York’s Capitol — lawmakers, lobbyists, political staffers — are speaking out about the sexual misconduct they’ve endured. | New York Times
🔥 Teachers at the Boston Latin School are creating study plans to better educate students about immigration issues which involve in-depth curriculums studying the U.S.’s history of intervention in South America. | Yes Magazine
🔥 The police officer who shot & killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop over the weekend has resigned. Wright was killed in a town 10 miles away from Minnesota where George Floyd, whose murder trial is ongoing, was killed. | USA Today
🖊️ What are the next NYC mayor’s plans for immigrant New Yorkers? I asked eight mayoral frontrunners about their policy platforms. | Documented/City & State
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If you like this, check out past issues of The P Word, like issue #9 where I looked at Hollywood’s whitewashing of Godzilla’s politics, or issue #2 in which I examine the situation of U.S. Congress’s *old* Old Guard.
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Stay golden,
Natasha