Opinion: Can Biden keep his campaign promises?

A phrase often heard last November was “Settle for Biden,” and a large portion of the population did. A significant reason for that was his campaign promises, such as a $15 minimum wage raise and tuition-free public schools.

But how well has he delivered so far?

President Joe Biden’s 100th day in office is April 30th, and some may say that it’s too early to judge his progress so far, but he needs to be held accountable.

On his first day in office, Biden signed 15 executive orders. He made great progress on some of his campaign promises: rejoin the Paris Agreement, require masks on federal property, cancel the Keystone XL permit, strengthen DACA, pull funds from a border wall, and end the travel ban on Muslim countries, among others. (You can see a full list of his executive orders and memorandums through February 24th here.)

One of the most pressing issues Biden promised to address is the pandemic. A $1.9 trillion stimulus bill is in the works, but there are some issues with fulfilling his promises.

Biden promised $2,000 checks on the trail, but the package includes $1,400 checks. He said that the $1,400 combined with the $600 checks distributed in January fulfills his promise of $2,000 to every qualifying American. Additionally, the bill includes a $15 minimum wage that is likely to be struck down by the Senate because a nonpartisan parliamentarian said the provision could not bypass Republican votes. Biden’s promise of $2,000 to struggling Americans was misleading, and the raised minimum wage is desperately needed. 

Biden also made a lot of promises about education, which needs desperate reform in this country. But, the administration has upset teachers by not planning to end standardized testing in public schools this year. Biden is also trying to get elementary schools open five days a week but has no clear guidelines for schools to follow. Ultimately, Biden doesn’t have control over reopening schools — it’s up to teachers’ unions and local officials that often have conflicting views on the best way to do so.

He also has not followed through on his promise to immediately cancel $10,000 of undergraduate student loans. He backtracked on immediately canceling loans by saying the money would be more beneficial towards early education. However, he remains supportive of Congress passing legislation to cancel student debt and extended the suspension on federal student loan payments.

Biden has followed through in other areas, though; he ended US support for the war in Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia. He also paused some weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. However, Biden is not doing much else to punish Saudi leaders as he promised. US intelligence has determined that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed was responsible for journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death, but Biden has refused to sanction him.

Instead, the administration opted to put travel and financial sanctions on other people involved in Khashoggi’s death as well as the Royal Guard, and Biden will only speak directly to King Salman. However, other members of the administration will still speak to Prince Mohammed.

In Afghanistan, Biden is facing problems with pulling out troops. The Trump administration started pulling them out without making progress on peace talks, which made the situation more precarious. However, the US troops are supporting the democratic Afghan democracy we helped put in place. Biden cannot pull all US troops out of Afghanistan without risking the collapse and disintegration of the Afghan democracy.

In Syria, Biden ordered an airstrike on resistance groups without consulting Congress first. He also has refused to rejoin the nuclear agreement with Iran as his campaign promised and is refusing to lift sanctions on them as well.

Biden also made big promises to overhaul the immigration system. Yet, the administration has continued to use Title 42, which allows immigration control to turn away migrants in the name of public health.

Currently, unaccompanied minors are in detention facilities that officials claim are operated differently than under the Trump administration. There is no plan to deport these minors, but the problem is that there is no plan whatsoever. Consequently, minors are being held in Border Control Custody longer than normal. 

Biden is certainly trying to fulfill his campaign promises, but he’s falling short in key areas. He would be much more successful if he could facilitate bipartisan action and compromise, but that requires time — something that he does not have.

The Biden administration needs to clearly communicate their goals and the steps they will take to fulfill their campaign promises. They inherited a mess from the Trump administration, which will take time and work to fix, but that doesn’t excuse inaction.

Many presidencies live and die by their first 100 days in office, and Biden needs to step up. If he fails to do so, he harms the Democratic Party’s chances in the midterm elections and risks losing control over both houses. This would make it much harder for him to deliver on his campaign promises.

Ella Olson is an opinion writer at the Statesman. She’s originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota and enjoys reading, debate, and hammocking.

ella.olson@usu.edu