Few of us remember a new President coming in during a pandemic pledged to keep American from suffering a economic hole…
According to the experts?
He DID that….
President Biden got the Congress to authorise $1.6 Trillion in loans, grants and tax credits….
Biden continues produce forgiveness for student loans in the billions…
He has made billions available for road and other infrastructure projects…..
Folks?
President Biden HAS do a DAMN Good job….
Actually better that Clinton or Obama….
He needs another four years to cement those actions for America
This Democratic President that has been a creature of Congress HAS produced….
BUT?
As HAS been said here over and OVER?
Joe Biden is LOUSY at Tooting his own horn…
(His handlers deserve a good part of the blame for this….Biden has been kept away from the media since day-one…Afraid of gaffs ?…They have kneecapped their boss…And now are pissed because the media isn’t giving them the Trump visibility)
He probably would be better if he wasn’t dealing with Donald Trump a guy who IS A Street Fighting , Entertaining , Bar Room Brawler….
Trump HAS and continues to garb ALL the media attention available….
It IS costing Biden polling numbers …
And if Trump gets back into the White House?
There probably would be cuts of the money Congress already approved and the money left over would claimed by Trump as HIS actions….
Joe Biden hung a portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt above the Oval Office fireplace when he entered the White House — the first time in nearly 60 years that the place of honor has gone to the architect of the New Deal.
Then Biden launched a spending spree whose impact would rival that of any president since.
But Biden’s attempt to secure an FDR-style legacy is running short on time.
A POLITICO analysis shows that hundreds of billions of dollars that Congress approved at Biden’s urging remain unspent heading into his November rematch with former President Donald Trump. If Trump wins, he could take a wrecking ball to Biden’s greatest legislative achievements: four laws containing $1.6 trillion in loans, grants and tax credits meant to green the economy, revive the country’s manufacturing base, repair its roads and bridges and challenge China for technological supremacy.
POLITICO spent months assessing the implementation of the four laws that make up the backbone of Biden’s legacy: the 2021 pandemic relief package, known as the American Rescue Plan; the bipartisan infrastructure law passed later that year; the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act; and the president’s premier climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
The review found:
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Less than 17 percent of the $1.1 trillion those laws provided for direct investments on climate, energy and infrastructure has been spent as of April, nearly two years after Biden signed the last of the statutes.
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Out of $145 billion in direct spending on energy and climate programs in the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate law in U.S. history, the administration has announced roughly $60 billion in tentative funding decisions as of April 11.
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The government has awarded less than $700 million of the $54 billion that Congress had made available in the CHIPS and Science Act, a law aimed at boosting competition with China, though the Commerce Department has announced $29 billion in tentative awards to semiconductor manufacturers in recent months. Awarding money means the federal government has committed to pay out an agreed-upon sum. A tentative award is still under negotiation.
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And only $125 billion has been spent from the $884 billion provided by the infrastructure law and the pandemic law, both of which Biden signed in 2021. Roughly $300 billion of that won’t be legally available to spend until the next two fiscal years.
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For much of this money, the government does not provide a centralized, easily accessible way for the public to see how much has been formally awarded or spent.
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The IRA also unleashed a gusher of private company investments in clean energy and manufacturing by offering a series of tax breaks that, based on recent estimates, are worth at least $525 billion. Those initiatives are hitting turbulence, with some major electric vehicle, battery, solar and wind projects being delayed or canceled because of changing or uncertain markets.
Now time is running short for these efforts to show results before voters decide whether to bring back Trump, who has denounced the climate and infrastructure laws, mocked wind power and electric cars and inaccurately described the IRA as the “biggest tax hike in history.”
Trump has said he should have the power to refuse to spend congressionally appropriated money he considers wasteful, despite a 1974 law that says otherwise. This raises the prospect that he could attempt to pare Biden-era funding even if it’s at an advanced stage of distribution.
Seeking to Trump-proof his legacy, Biden and his Cabinet are crisscrossing the U.S. to promote their initiatives, adding to dozens of speeches, ribbon cuttings and other appearances they’ve made on the spending plans in the past two years. The conveyor belt of big-dollar announcements has cranked up in recent weeks, including $20 billion for grassroots climate financing, $1.52 billion to restart a shuttered nuclear plant, $3 billion to help states remove lead drinking water pipes and Biden’s announcement in late April of $6.1 billion for advanced semiconductor factories in New York and Idaho.
Spending announcements across three of the four laws have totaled more than $543 billion, according to the White House and the Department of Commerce — half of the administration’s overall planned investment. This includes both money the government has formally awarded and awards still under negotiation.
But there can be a big gap between announcing a spending decision and actually distributing the money…