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FEBRUARY 7, 2023

Meyerson on TAP

**Biden the Unappreciated**

Despite his historic achievements, the public doesn't think he's
done much at all.

Joe Biden hasn't been faring all that well in the polls for most of
the past two years, but the one splashed over the front page
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of today's

**Washington Post** is the unkindest one of all.

It begins by asking whether respondents believe Biden has accomplished
"a great deal" or "a good amount" or "not very much" or "little or
nothing" in his first two years as president. A bare 36 percent answered
"a great deal" or "a good amount," while a not-so-bare 62 percent opted
for "not very much" or "little or nothing." Predictably, most
Democrats-77 percent-were among that 36 percent of the approving
public, while just 7 percent of Republicans were. Among independents,
however, the breakdown was 32 percent on the plus side, 66 percent on
the minus.

Polled on the specifics of Biden's achievements, Americans came up
with essentially the same responses. Did he create "more good jobs in
your community"? Only 34 percent said yes. Improve roads and bridges? 32
percent. Lower prescription drug costs? 30 percent. Make electric cars
more affordable? 26 percent.

To be sure, these underwhelming numbers are partly due to Biden's
programs only now beginning to kick in. Roads and bridges will take a
while. The $35 monthly cap on out-of-pocket insulin expenses only took
effect last month.

But there are deeper reasons for this troubling disconnect. For one
thing, some of Biden's proposals only made it through Congress in slow
and fragmentary forms. Medicare will be able to bargain down the prices
of prescription drugs, but not for several years, and then, just ten of
those drugs.

Moreover, Biden's real achievements-massive tax credits for
companies that invest in green energy, funding for semiconductor and
other domestic factories, and, yes, shoring up those roads and
bridges-won't become visible to the untrained eye for some time, if
indeed ever. Franklin Roosevelt understood this dynamic when he
redirected some funding away from the massive projects (like building
the Boulder Dam) of the Public Works Administration to the nonmassive
but job-heavy projects of the Works Progress Administration. His chief
reason was that, with unemployment at 25 percent, he needed to get
millions of Americans to work ASAP, even if that work simply consisted
of paving roads or sprucing up parks. But he also understood that the
more immediate the job creation, the better the consequence politically.

Now, Biden can claim an almost FDR-like record for job creation in his
first two years; that's why unemployment is lower than it's been in
nearly 60 years. But that was the result of his initial $1.9 trillion
economic recovery package that passed at the start of his presidency,
which was both coupled and coincided with inflation. If that inflation
continues to subside and unemployment remains low, some of Biden's
numbers should rise a bit-perhaps enough to get him re-elected. But
that's no sure thing, particularly since the media-and not just the
mainstream media-hasn't really looked at the massive job creation
effects that that legislation brought with it.

Problem is, those parts of the Biden agenda that would have had a
greater impact on public consciousness-the Child Tax Credit, paid sick
leave, free public college tuition, and such-ended up on Joe
Manchin's cutting-room floor. The parts that made it through-revived
industrial policy, green-energy investment, infrastructure-were
chiefly capital expenditures, to which it's not clear that the public
pays that much attention. FDR is remembered for establishing Social
Security and the federal minimum wage, and legalizing collective
bargaining, more than he's remembered for the dams and airports he
funded. Dwight Eisenhower was a popular president, but I don't know
how much of his popularity hinged on the creation of the interstate
highway system he authorized, and which took decades to complete.

It was to rectify such pervasive unappreciation, Biden's aides may
believe, that the State of the Union address was created. We'll see
how that goes later tonight.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

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Small Businesses Rise to Fight Wall Street
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Increased swipe fees got shopkeepers mobilized, and could further an
anti-monopoly revolution. BY LUKE GOLDSTEIN

Keeping Crypto From Corrupting the Regulators
<[link removed]>
Financial scams thrive on weak regulation. Biden's regulators are
fighting back. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

Private Equity's Newest Play
<[link removed]>
Insurance companies are the latest morsel for these financial predators
to devour. BY DAVID DAYEN

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