What does Joe Biden need to get done in his first 100 days?

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The USA TODAY Opinion section asked members of our Board of Contributors, "What is the most critical priority for President Joe Biden to succeed on in his first 100 days?"

Biden doesn't need to act, he needs to listen

The most important thing that President Biden can do in his first 100 days is listen. It’s the most important form of communication — and the least utilized one, especially by politicians. It’s also a good way to get informed, defuse tension and disarm critics. While many of those who run for president boast that they will know how to do the job on Day One, that is rarely true. Biden starts with a sizable advantage over others who have stepped into the job because he was vice president just four years ago. But a lot has happened in the past four years to knock the government off its game. Biden will need time to survey the landscape, post-Trump. Listening — particularly to critics — will also help Biden calm the country’s anxieties. Trump supporters are worked up something fierce at the moment because they feel no one hears them or cares about their concerns. Giving them a hearing will take the steam from their engines. They expect to be ignored. Biden mustn’t give them the satisfaction. President Biden will have plenty of time to get things done. But listening will teach him what needs doing and how to do it.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a syndicated columnist and founder of the Navarrette Sonic Podcast Network. Follow him on Twitter: @RubenNavarrette

Fix the vaccine rollout

Above all, Biden must remedy the lagging COVID-19 vaccine rollout. In the race to get 100 million shots into 100 million arms in the first 100 days, the administration must redouble its commitment to racial and economic justice, learn from past failures, and respond to bottlenecks with lightning-fast precision to ensure vaccination efforts don’t devolve further into a chaotic free-for-all that reach only a privileged few. Getting a shot in most of the country resembles something like a rush for coveted concert tickets in pre-pandemic days. But this vaccine “golden ticket” could save your life. The botched rollout has seniors lining up at health departments and scouring the Internet for scarce appointments. It’s easy to see who’s going to be left behind in this mad scramble: those who lack access to technology and transportation, who live with disabilities and in “pharmacy deserts,” who don’t speak English and who need trusted information about vaccine safety. The pandemic has exposed America’s festering inequality and cracks in our crumbling public health infrastructure. If we have any hope of ending this crisis, Biden’s plan must ensure equitable vaccine access and reach long-neglected communities of color who have borne the pandemic’s disproportionate suffering and death.

Stacy Torres is an assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Social Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

A day before his inauguration, Joe Biden delivers remarks on Jan. 19, 2021, at the Major Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III National Guard/Reserve Center in New Castle, Delaware. The base was recently renamed to honor the president-elect's son, who died of brain cancer in 2015.
A day before his inauguration, Joe Biden delivers remarks on Jan. 19, 2021, at the Major Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III National Guard/Reserve Center in New Castle, Delaware. The base was recently renamed to honor the president-elect's son, who died of brain cancer in 2015.

Pass the COVID-19 relief package

Rarely has any president had to attack so many equally urgent problems on Day One: pandemic, political upheaval and economic meltdown. But if forced to choose the single initiative in which Biden must succeed, it would be his proposed rescue package. Not necessarily the full $1.9 trillion proposal, but two essential elements of it. First, the $1,400 stipend. We are in a crisis of epic proportions, with raging unemployment and more than 25 million Americans who don’t have enough to eat, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Second, the measures that most impact women, including support for child care and paid family and sick leave. The coronavirus economic fallout has hit women far harder than men — there’s a reason it’s called a “shecession” — and people of color far harder than whites. In December, women accounted for 100% of the net loss of 140,000 jobs, most of them women of color, who disproportionately work in areas like hospitality and retail. We can’t recover from the pandemic if we leave half of the population behind.

Joanne Lipman, the Distinguished Journalism Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, is author of "That's What She Said: What Men and Women Need to Know About Working Together." She is a former editor-in-chief of USA TODAY. Follow her on Twitter: @joannelipman

Launch a fight against racism

Although COVID-19 and the economy are both significant problems that must be addressed, these problems are facing global citizens everywhere. America has another critical issue that is being used by our adversaries to tear us apart. That issue is racism. The major issues facing this country — the coronavirus pandemic, health care, the economy, criminal and justice reform, and domestic terrorism — all intersect with racism, which makes those issues particularly daunting. Loving a country that continues to grapple with racism is like loving a father who continually disappoints you. As I loved my father, I also continue to love my country. I pay my taxes, I work hard to support my family and I vote. I am fully an American citizen and a patriot. I am also fully a Black woman. I am painfully aware that in spite of the progress and promises, my race dictates to many how I should be viewed and treated. Addressing the country’s problems with racism will not be an easy fix, but acknowledging it as a problem is the first step toward change.

Njeri Mathis Rutledge is a professor of law at South Texas College of Law Houston and a former prosecuting attorney. Follow her on Twitter: @NjeriRutledge

Build a humble yet ambitious foreign policy

COVID-19 has forced the United States to realign its foreign policy priorities. It’s not simply enough for Biden to rejoin a few treaties and alliances and dial the clock back to 2016. The world’s balance of power is profoundly different, and so he needs to dial back American expectations and recalibrate U.S. strategic priorities going forward. He needs to put forth a new foreign policy that is more humble yet not throw away the proverbial baby with the bath water when it comes to jettisoning Donald Trump’s policies. Biden should double down on Trump’s cajoling of allies to pay their fair share of collective defense. He should keep pressure on China to be a responsible stakeholder in international institutions while respecting its neighbors’ territorial rights, intellectual property of businesses, and human rights of its various ethnic minorities and of Hong Kong citizens. At the same time, the new president must not allow the gravitational pull of so-called great power competition to drain all the oxygen out of other U.S. priorities and threats, or in becoming a self-fulfilled prophecy. China’s rise will be competitive but peaceful. Biden should order a top-down review of whether our defense priorities are being met by our whopping $700 billion budget and look to slash programs that are either misaligned, wasteful or needlessly bureaucratic (beginning with a serious rethink of Trump’s quixotic fascination with a Space Force). More money and resources should flow from the Pentagon toward the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (and the United Nations), so that the face of U.S. foreign policy is no longer one in head-to-toe fatigues. That will allow us to face the real threat of climate change and potential future pandemics more adroitly. He should also commission a task force to study civil-military relations to think through the ramifications of what a smaller military will do for the American psyche and position in the world, as well as a thorough investigation of the presence of hate groups within its ranks. America cannot rot from within if it is to project strength and confidence overseas. Yet nor should we fool ourselves that we will no longer be fighting Vietnam-style wars as the ascendancy of middle powers — the Turkeys and Ethiopias and Irans of the world — and their jostling for regional primacy will inevitably suck in American troops, like it or not. That is what a system of unbalanced multipolarity, as politics scientists call it, looks like. Trouble is, without strong leadership like a Bismarck or a Merkel at the helm, or without a rejuvenated fleet of foreign service officers to put out brush fires preventatively before their spread, these types of systems are typically unstable and can lead to war. Biden has the unfortunate task of thinking bold while midwifing an America that is more humble and no longer the world’s sole superpower or policeman. Expect turbulent times ahead.

Lionel Beehner is co-editor of "Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: The Military, Society, Politics, and Modern War." He is formerly an assistant professor at West Point.

Reach out to Trump voters

Biden assumes the presidency under the most fraught conditions in American history. America’s influence in the world is at an all-time low. The economy is teetering. The pandemic is out of control and could end up killing as many Americans as all the wars in the 20th century, combined. But the worst problem President Biden faces is this: In a recent poll, 54% of Americans said that the biggest threat to America’s way of life is “other people in America.” That isn’t sustainable. To succeed, Biden needs to persuade the more than 74 million Americans who didn’t vote for him — over 50 million of whom still don’t believe he won — to give him a fair shake. That isn’t going to be easy, and it’s no use just expecting them to fall in line. He needs to speak to these people directly and ask them, as fellow Americans who love their country, to put aside their differences for six months and work with him to beat the coronavirus, get everyone vaccinated and stabilize the economy. Making speeches isn’t going to help heal America’s wounds, whether they are racial, political or social, but working together and succeeding just might.

Chris Truax, an appellate lawyer in San Diego, is a legal adviser for The Guardrails of Democracy Project and CEO of CertifiedVoter.com.

Actually be a moderate

Americans are violently divided, as shown by the protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol and the riots that spread destruction across the country last year. To unify a seething nation, Biden needs to chart a moderate course during his first 100 days in the White House. “Unity is not some pie-in-the-sky dream. It’s a practical step to getting things done,” he stated last week. Thus far, however, Democrats sound more committed to retribution and pursuing a radically leftist agenda than bringing people together. According to Politico, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “Expulsion should be on the table,” about removing congressional Republicans for supporting President Trump’s efforts to decertify the election. Other Democrats want to bar Trump-supporting conservatives from being able to co-sponsor any legislation during the incoming 117th Congress. On top of such revenge plots is a Democratic agenda on federal deficit spending, tax increases, immigration, the "Green New Deal," gun control, student-loan debt forgiveness and abortion that is neither bipartisan nor unifying. Biden needs to step back from the ledge and reach out to the middle to show that he believes unity is not a pie-in-the-sky dream, and that he really wants to represent all Americans.

Brett M. Decker is a former editor for The Wall Street Journal and author of “The Conservative Case for Trump.” Follow him on Twitter: @BrettMDecker

Let it start with a prayer

Thirty-two years ago, I sat on a folding chair outside the U.S. Capitol and watched George H.W. Bush take the oath of office, becoming the 41st president of the United States. Thousands sat with me, shoulder to shoulder. The Capitol was not an armed fortress then, no razor wire or nonscalable fencing. Peace and order reigned. I remember feeling an unexpected rush of emotion as President Bush recited the oath — and with that sudden rush came quiet tears of hope and pride. I watched with the world as he declared, aloud, that his very first act as president would be a prayer. And then he prayed. His first prayer: “Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank you for your love. Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make us strong to do your work, willing to heed and hear your will and write on our hearts these words — ‘Use power to help people.’ For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us remember it, Lord. Amen.” Straight out of the gate, he declared his intention — “My first act as president is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads” — followed by the prayer itself, and from that moment forward he led the nation with a strong, caring hand. Faith and works.

In his first 100 days as president, Biden must work to unify and heal this nation. He must assume the role of chief architect for a vaccine rollout that will be organized and efficient. He must throw all of his energy into containing COVID-19 and halting these needless deaths. He must make the moves that will repair and stimulate this gutted economy. He must put this nation on a path toward social and racial justice. He must restore public trust. We are a nation in crisis and confusion. From the first moment of the first day of his presidency and for all of his days in office thereafter, Biden must assume a bold, bipartisan, boots-on-the-ground sensibility that places all of us at the same starting line together, ready to run this new race and win it. It is our race to win or our race to lose.

Lord knows there’s lots of work to be done, and plenty to prioritize. But before Biden unfurls that oh-so-very-long laundry list, I am hoping — and hopeful — that he will begin his presidency with a prayer. Straight out of the gate. It has been done before. Begin with a payer. Then get to work. In that order.

Kristin Clark Taylor is an author, editor and journalist. She served as White House director of media relations under President George H.W. Bush.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What Joe Biden needs to do in first 100 days: USA TODAY contributors