LETTER: Biden accomplished plenty in first year

Editor, Register-Mail: Last Sunday the Roundtable graded President Biden’s performance. Three of the respondents — David Amor, John Hunigan, and Laurie Muelder — listed both the good and not-so-good that Biden has done. Their grades ranged from “incomplete” to “B-.”

Predictably, the others put ideology over objectivity. William Urban tossed in a dash of fairness with a “D-,” citing that Biden hadn’t started a war —"yet.” But retired judge Harry Bulkeley and Charlie Gruner remained true to form grading the president with an “F” and “Massive failure [sic]” respectively.

Biden's first year: Roundtable: Grading President Biden's first year in office

I’ll get back to those three gentlemen later. But first I’ll address folks who voted for Joe Biden, especially Democrats. It’s time we stop hanging our heads and start bragging about the president’s accomplishments; he’s done a better job than the opposition claims. Take the infrastructure bill that Biden signed. Another case in point is the American Rescue Plan.

Biden entered office with 6.3%. unemployment. Millions of jobs lost. Democrats passed Biden’s $1.9 trillion ARP. Money went to small businesses, jobless benefits were extended, state and local governments were propped up, funds poured into fighting COVID 19, and childhood poverty has substantially decreased. The Labor Department now reports unemployment is 3.9%, year-over-year wage growth is up nearly 5%, and over 6 million jobs were created during Biden’s first year. Plus, the Commerce Department reported Thursday that the economy grew 5.7% in 2021, the strongest since 1984.

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Sadly, every congressional Republican voted against the ARP. But that hasn’t stopped them from taking credit for the good things coming out of the American Rescue Plan. For example, Republican Paul Gosar, who represents Arizona’s 4th, issued this press release after ARP money flowed into his district: “I am pleased to announce that the city of Kingman will receive this critical funding for economic relief…This funding is essential to maintaining safe and reliable air service to the community.”

Republican hypocrisy proves that President Biden has accomplished things that help all Americans. The ARP is one of his achievements, and it’s time for Democrats to do some bragging.

As for the three who flunked the president, like most Americans each of them may have received $1,400 from the ARP to soften the economic mess Biden inherited. Considering they feel so passionately that President Biden has done a lousy job, if any of them received $1,400, I’m sure the money has been mailed back to the White House. — Jim Jacobs, Galesburg

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: President Biden accomplished plenty, such as American Rescue Plan