ICYMI: "Biden's record speaks for itself"

As Jennifer Rubin writes in the Washington Post today, President Biden's record speaks for itself. Whether it's falling crime, falling unlawful border encounters, and falling inflation or a growing economy, growing investments, and growing small businesses, it's clear President Biden has delivered on his promise to be a President for all Americans.

Read more below:

Washington Post: Opinion | Biden's record speaks for itself
On crime, the economy and immigration, Republicans have little to complain about.
[Jennifer Rubin, 9/26/24]

[O]n the merits, President Joe Biden's four-year term compares favorably with any four- or eight-year presidency over the past few decades. […] The media has often covered Biden's presidency in ways that are unduly and irrationally negative. Those interested in substance, however, should recognize that Biden has presided over not only legislative victories (e.g., the American Rescue Plan, the bipartisan infrastructure deal, the Chips and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act), but also positive results on a whole array of issues.

This week, the FBI released further evidence of the noteworthy drop in crime during Biden's tenure. "Violent crime in the U.S. dropped in 2023, according to FBI statistics that show a continued trend downward after a coronavirus pandemic-era crime spike," the Associated Press reported. "Overall violent crime declined an estimated 3% in 2023 from the year before, according to the FBI report Monday. Murders and nonnegligent manslaughter dropped nearly 12%." The drop was particularly significant in municipal areas of 1 million or more people. We are approaching pre-pandemic levels, after a surge during the Trump presidency.

In a statement following the release of the FBI data, Biden announced: "In 2023, according to the data, our nation saw the largest ever one-year decrease in the homicide rate, which is now 16% below its level in 2020. Violent crime also declined again and is at a near 50-year low." Biden's assertion that we are near a 50-year low turns out to be true.

Likewise, with the Federal Reserve's recent rate cut signaling that inflation has largely been tamed, Biden can accurately boast that the United States economy leads the world. "Inflation has come back down close to its level just before the pandemic, while we have maintained the lowest average unemployment of any administration in over 50 years, and real GDP has grown by 2.9 percent per year on average. December 2020 was the last month in which U.S. employment declined; since then, employment has expanded for 43 months in a row," National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard observed during a speech in New York last week. "Consumers have remained resilient, small business creation has reached record highs, and incomes have risen by more than prices for median American households."

During the Biden administration, nearly 16 million new jobs have been created, including almost 800,000 manufacturing jobs. Nineteen million new business applications have been filed. Energy production from all sources is at a new high.

Consider how the Inflation Reduction Act has transformed the economy. The act invested "close to $370 billion to combat climate change," which in turn spurred "more than $100 billion in private investment and roughly 100,000 new jobs created in clean energy manufacturing," PBS NewsHour recently reported. "Together, the [Inflation Reduction Act] and its companion bill, the Chips Act, offer more than $400 billion in funds focused on jump starting manufacturing industry, reducing emissions and providing cleaner electricity to the economy."

The bottom line, according to Jack Conness, an analyst at Energy Innovation Policy and Technology: "All this has led to the U.S. taking a leadership role at a global scale when it comes to a clean energy future." Biden's choice in enlisting the private sector paid off handsomely:

So one of the beautiful things about the Inflation Reduction Act is it — is just a signal to the private market to engage in a clean energy economy. It doesn't pick winners, it doesn't pick losers, and it certainly does not pick where these investments will take place.

So the private market has come in and has made their decisions on their own internal checklists on where to make these investments across the country, and what we've seen up to this point are a number of investments made in what are traditionally red or purple states.

On the health-care front, Biden announced this month that "nearly 50 million people have had coverage in the Affordable Care Act Marketplace over the past decade." With 1 in 7 Americans covered by the ACA, it was able to reduce costs "by an average of $800 per year for millions of Americans." Combined with the drug prescription controls in place for Medicare — which might benefit millions of people with employer-sponsored insurance who use one of the first 10 drugs identified for Medicare price negotiations — many Americans will see their health-care costs go down.

Finally, the border remains an ongoing problem for both parties. After Republicans nixed a tough border security bill, however, Biden acted unilaterally to surge resources to the region, speeding up the screening process and denying asylum to those who cross illegally. "In July, the number of migrants illegally crossing the southern border between official entry points plummeted to 56,400, the lowest level in nearly 4 years, according to federal statistics," CBS News reported last month. "Newly-released government figures show Mr. Biden's asylum crackdown, the most restrictive by a Democratic president, has ushered in a seismic shift in how migrants are processed at the U.S.-Mexico border." Specifically, "In July, Border Patrol released 12,000 migrants with notices to appear in immigration court, down from 28,000 in June and 62,000 in May, before Mr. Biden's asylum changes, according to Customs and Border Protection data." Border crossings ticked up slightly higher in August, but remain well below the 2023 spike.

No president achieves all he wants. No president leaves a problem-free country. However, considering the gigantic challenges (e.g., covid-19, a recession, Jan. 6) that Biden faced when he took office, the narrow majorities he had for two years and the unhinged House he endured for the next two, a fair assessment of his domestic record over four years would give him high marks. […]