Biden’s Promises

Joe Biden made many promises during his 2020 presidential campaign. According to PolitiFact, his top 5 promises are: Get COVID-19 under control, get bipartisan cooperation on the economy, use a national commission to address policing issues, put the US on a course to net-zero emissions by 2050, and improve Obamacare. None of those promises have been kept so far, and one has even been stalled, specifically; using a national commission to address policing issues. 

Of a hundred total promises, only twelve have been kept so far. Five of these twelve kept promises entail reversing the former administration’s policies. These policies being: reversing transgender military ban, reversing family separation policies that separate illegal immigrant families at the southern border, rejoining the World Health Organization, rejoinging the Paris Climate Accord, and rescinding the so called “Muslim bans”, which restricted travel into the United States from several “Muslim-majority” countries. 

Three of Biden’s promises have also been stalled. His promise to update the Voting Rights Act to ensure states can’t pass voting laws that “discriminate against minority voters” was stalled when the update did not receive enough votes in the Senate in order for it to advance. Biden’s promise about forming a national policing commission was stalled when he paused progress on it and opted to work on passing a law detailing police accountability. The promise in which Biden said he wanted to restore engagement with Cuba fell through when Cubans protested against their government for restricting speech and expression, as well as access to media platforms to spread their message. 

Only one promise has resulted in a compromise so far, as his promise about creating mask mandates nationwide collapsed when certain states’ governments expressed that they would refuse to enforce the mandate if it were to be enacted. Florida governor Ron DeSantis threatened to form a lawsuit against the Biden administration if the administration were to force Florida to uphold a mask or vaccine mandate. Texas governor Greg Abbot has been involved in multiple lawsuits with some cities regarding their ability to force mask mandates, resulting in the mandates administered by the cities being blocked. Many Democratic states have enforced mask mandates of varying types, including: California, Hawaii, Connecticut, Louisiana, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Washington, and Oregon.