This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden passing the 100-day mark with high grades from liberals and gasps of disbelief from conservatives.
Our Democratic grader, pollster John Zogby, compared Biden to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson in his efforts so far to change the nation. He also called Biden’s low-key address to a joint session of Congress a “legacy speech” and graded a top A+.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin also raised the specter of FDR, but it was that of how Republicans back then greeted the big-government Democrat. “He’s taken a wrecking ball to America and, both domestically and internationally, caused enormous damage,” said Babbin in grading an F.
John Zogby
Grade: A+
Biden gave a legacy speech this week before Congress.
He channeled both FDR and LBJ by defining a strong role for the federal government in our lives. Roosevelt moved to save the U.S. economy; Johnson’s efforts focused on reducing the causes of violence in U.S. cities and to offer services and hope for the poor.
Biden’s goal is to save U.S. democracy, build and rebuild infrastructure in its broadest terms, expand educational opportunities, and reduce the stress for families who need child care, tax breaks, and opportunities in growing sectors of the economy. He reiterated success made in his first 100 days, but he was clearly looking to position himself as one who will be viewed as one of our great presidents.
He sees himself as a transformational and not a transitional president. His speech was not fiery because he is not fiery. But it was authentic and played to his strengths of empathy and working-class roots.
Thus far, the country likes him and like individual parts of his policies. It didn’t hurt at all that the announcement that the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 6.4% came just hours before his speech. Biden faces universal opposition among Republicans for his plan, and he also faces a skeptical public when it comes to trusting government. Aided by a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian, he should be able to accomplish quite a bit without one single GOP vote — but he has a daunting challenge there too. Nonetheless, this was a historical moment.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
Biden has now been in office for 100 days, the point at which most presidents’ performance first gets measured. In his 100 days, Biden has done far more than any president since Roosevelt in 1932, and his decisions are made consistent with the beliefs of the farthest left wing of the Democratic Party. He’s taken a wrecking ball to America and, both domestically and internationally, caused enormous damage. His Wednesday night speech to a joint session of Congress was long, boring, and filled with more promises to please the hard Left.
Biden’s open borders by mid-March had admitted over 170,000 illegal immigrants being caught inside the United States and then released. An equal or greater number probably hadn’t even been caught. Biden is busing migrants all over the country, dropping them off for local communities to house, feed, and provide medical services for them. He wants a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Biden has done his best to be as divisive as Obama was, continuing his accusations that America is systemically racist. His comments about the Derek Chauvin trial were designed to divide America, not unite us.
Biden rejoined the Paris agreement and, in a recent climate summit among world leaders, promised that U.S. carbon emissions would be reduced by 50% by 2030. If it can even be accomplished, Biden’s promise will require tens of trillions of dollars expenditure to transform our economy away from carbon fuels, plus more trillions to rebuild the U.S. electric grid completely. (The power grid is barely adequate now. How can we plug in hundreds of millions of cars and trucks every day?) Biden’s economic revolution will cripple our economy and have about zero effect on global carbon emissions because the U.S. only emits about 15% of the world’s emissions. If we did nothing at all to change our plans, we’d still be reducing carbon emissions every year. Biden’s actions are totally unnecessary. He cripples us and leaves China and India, who produce vastly more carbon emissions than we do, to go their merry way, ignoring the Paris agreement’s goals.
Internationally, Biden has renewed the “New START” agreement on Russia’s terms, promised to relieve Iran of some sanctions to entice it to at least pretend compliance with Obama’s 2015 nuclear weapons deal, failed to stop construction of the Nordstream 2 pipeline that will make Europe more dependent on Russian energy, failed to stand up to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and continued his policy of “give something and get nothing in return” in foreign policy negotiations. His weakness toward our adversaries is comprehensive.
It’s not going to get better in the next 100 days or the next 1,000, as his speech Wednesday night promised. Tax hikes, free healthcare, free child care, free college, more regulatory messes, a continued assault on the Second Amendment, and even more trillions of dollars in federal spending porn are what he plans for the rest of the year and beyond. As I’ve written before, Biden’s policy is Big Government on steroids.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
