Biden wants to be re-elected in 2024. What economic promises has he kept from 2020?
President Joe Biden is officially running for re-election, and the 3-minute video he released Tuesday to announce the new 2024 campaign focused on economic concerns alongside other issues like abortion and defending democracy.
It’s an appropriate time, then, to assess how Biden has performed on the economic promises he made in 2020. A look back reveals a productive 27 months in office — but also a lengthy to-do list that remains.
A Yahoo Finance analysis of data tracked by Politifact.com shows that 34 of 99 key pledges made by Biden in 2020 focused around core economic concerns like jobs, economic growth, taxes, and retirement. Over half of those pledges are still works in progress while 15 of them have been fulfilled at least in some form.
Biden himself acknowledged as much in Tuesday's video asking Americans to help him "finish the job, I know we can."
Here’s some of the highlights of those financial promises — and what’s still on the docket.
Taxes and Social Security
Biden put Social Security and taxes at the center of his message Tuesday, as he did in his State of the Union address.
He charges that conservative Republicans are intent on "cutting Social Security that you’ve paid for your entire life while cutting taxes for the very wealthy" and promising to protect "bedrock freedoms."
It is a charge that Biden has been making for months now - and most Republicans vehemently deny. But the focus on the social safety net program also has echoes of 2020, when Biden promised to expand Social Security and pledged to point the program towards long run solvency.
Both of those promises remain unfulfilled. In fact, Social Security is moving steadily towards insolvency and the prospect of reduced benefits in about 10 years time. President Biden’s recent budget proposal lacked a Social Security plan as it instead focused on shoring up the Medicare trust fund.
"Why doesn't the president care?" said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who has been leading bipartisan talks on the issue. He claimed Biden wouldn’t even sit for a meeting on the issue.
The area where Biden has kept more of his promises is on the taxation front.
During his campaign, he promised to raise taxes on America’s biggest corporations and he has delivered with a new 15% minimum tax on the so-called "book income" of large corporation that was enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act. That change to the tax landscape comes as a bigger pledge to raise the overall corporate tax rate to 28% is off the table for now.
Biden also promised not to raise taxes on any individuals making under $400,000 a year. Republicans say he has broken that pledge, while fact checkers are more nuanced in their assessment. They say how you view that issue usually depends on whether you think increased corporate taxes are eventually borne by individuals.
Energy
Biden’s main broken promise from the 2020 campaign, according to Politifact, has to do with the energy industry.
Biden pledged to stop new fracking projects on federal lands but a federal judge blocked Biden's efforts and lease sales have since moved forward.
Biden’s recent move to approve the Willow project, an $8 billion oil drilling effort in Alaska, is another area that is sure to be a sore spot among many of his Democratic supporters, especially younger voters, as the re-election campaign gears up in the months ahead.
Some energy promises from Biden have been kept. They include his aggressive actions to cut U.S. emissions by 2050, establishing new fuel economy standards and rejoining the Paris climate agreement.
The workplace and health care
On a host of other economic issues, Biden’s scorecard is also mixed.
While Biden often touts himself as the most worker-friendly President in history (he is speaking today at the North America's Building Trades Unions 2023 National Legislative Conference), some of his workplace efforts have stalled. That includes attempts to guarantee of 12 weeks paid family and medical leave and increase the federal minimum wage.
Politifact notes that the President kept a key promise to get COVID-19 under control in order to allow renewed economic growth. Even as culture wars continue to flare over issues like masking, the government efforts have largely proven successful with many Covid restrictions a distant memory for many Americans and an unemployment rate of 3.5% to match pre-pandemic levels.
On health care, Biden also has notable some successes to tout. He fulfilled a pledge to allow Medicare to negotiating lower drug prices. However, broader promises like enacting a public option health insurance plan remain stalled.
Famed political strategist James Carville suggested those issues should be core to Biden 2024 message in a recent Yahoo Finance Live appearance. "Let's just put it very simply: There are more people working in America than anytime in 50 years. There are more people that have health care in America than any time in American history....and by those metrics, he's probably the most successful President we've had the last 100 years."
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
Click here for politics news related to business and money
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube
