Biden’s lack of leadership and priorities means he will leave office without any real lasting policy achievements, says Vox's Dylan Matthews. This episode was produced by Peter Balonon-Rosen, edited by Matt Collette and Miranda Kennedy, fact checked by Laura Bullard, mixed by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members President Joe Biden riding his bike in Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the assessment of Biden's presidency?
All signs seem to indicate that one week from today, the United States will break from recent tradition and have a peaceful transition of power. It felt like a good time to assess Joe Biden's presidency, which his staff would have you believe is one of the most consequential in American history. FDR-esque.
I admire their loyalty to their boss, but I think Biden is... a pretty mid-tier, mediocre president. I don't think he's awful. I don't think he's a horrible threat to freedom the way that you might hear on Truth Social. The main way I would describe Joe Biden is that he was an unusually weak president.
And he was, in many important moments, loath to decide when we really needed a president to decide. And I think that ultimately made him less effective than he could have been in the moment.
The good, the bad, and the Biden. Vox's Dylan Matthews is gonna help us assess on Today Explained.
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Today, explain Sean Rama's firm here with Dylan Matthews from Vox, who thinks President Biden was ultimately a weak president.
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Chapter 2: Why is Biden considered a weak president?
Let's talk for a moment about what he actually did, his major accomplishments, and whether they'll be remembered in 10 years or not, starting with the American Rescue Plan. Remind us what that was and what Joe Biden did and didn't do in terms of, you know, the priorities there.
So let's, in our heads, go back to January 2021. Vaccine distribution.
Violence sought to shake the capital's very foundation.
Things are maybe starting to open up, but they kind of shouldn't. People are largely locked down, offices are not reopened. The American Rescue Plan was Biden's sort of stimulus package for that moment. And it was a mix of a lot of different things.
By the time all the money is distributed, 85 percent of American households will have gotten a $1,400 rescue checks.
But there was a lot of other parts, too. They gave a lot of money to states to spend as they saw fit. There was a lot of funding for programs like food stamps, Medicaid. There was also an expansion of the child tax credit, which did a lot to cut poverty that year.
That's the estimate. Child poverty will be cut in half as a consequence of what's in this Recovery Act.
It was a very, very big package. It was about $1.9 trillion.
It's one thing to pass a historic piece of legislation like the American Rescue Plan, and it's quite another to implement it. And the devil is in the details.
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