By Antjuan Seawright, Columnist
Elections have consequences. It’s true.Of course, I usually point this out when the news is bad and the folks who represent us go off the rails by waging war on the right to vote, cutting taxes for Americans who don’t need it, and services for those of us who do or curry political favor by claiming a fair and legitimate election doesn’t count.
This time, however, the news is good as over the past few weeks President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats are showing us that government can be a force for positive change in America and, more importantly, that it should. Need proof? Just look at last week’s jobs report showing that our economy more than doubled expectations with 528,000 new jobs created in July.
Or you could consider that, before that, President Biden and Congressional Democrats fought back against stiff obstruction from Senate Republicans to pass the PACT Act extending healthcare benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.
Let’s talk about the fact that, last month, President Biden signed the first new first major gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years and, despite GOP obstinance, a historic climate, tax, and healthcare package that will help fight both climate change and inflation dodged every legislative pitfall and will soon become law.I mean, this is a plan that cuts greenhouse gasses by 40 percent by 2040. That’s huge and, with reconciliation yet to come, it could be even bigger. Tell me again how this president can’t get anything done. He not only got it done, but he also did it with the slimmest of majorities in both the US House and US Senate.
But we shouldn’t be surprised because, while there certainly are folks eager to prove their own relevance by pushing the same old narrative of a president powerless against partisan deadlock, the truth is quite the opposite. In fact, for this administration, major accomplishments aren’t the exception — they’re the rule.
After all, since taking office, President Biden has:
● Confirmed more judges to our lower federal courts than any president since Kennedy.
● Appointed eight black women to 13 US Courts of Appeals.● Named the first openly LGBTQ woman to sit on an appeals court, the first Muslim American to a federal judgeship, and the first African-American woman ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
● Banned chokeholds and no-knock warrants from federal law enforcement, banned private prisons and his Department of Justice has launched investigations into the Mount Vernon, Louisville, Phoenix, and Minneapolis police departments.
● Led the fight against discrimination against LGBTQ patients in healthcare and LGBTQ families in housing.
● Implemented new efforts to aggressively combat housing discrimination and protect Black-owned home values.
● Rejoined the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accords.
● Authorized the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) for the first time since its inception and provided roughly $100 billion in federal contracts to small disadvantaged and Black-owned businesses.
● Provided $130 billion to help our schools safely reopen, ensured that high-poverty school districts and schools are protected in the event of future funding cuts, and invested $5.8 billion in our Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
● Helped cut child poverty in half (lifting roughly 1 million Black children out of poverty in October 2021 alone).
● Passed the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which, among other things, invests $15 billion over five years to replace our lead water lines across America.
● Lead the fight against COVID-19 with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan which included direct payments to Americans of up to $1,400.
● Struck a major blow in the War on Terror with the death of Al Qaeda head and 9/11 architect Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Oh yeah, he also signed two executive orders to protect women’s access to reproductive healthcare services in the wake of the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
Now, if you think that seems like a lot…that’s because it is. It also is only just a taste of all the ways this White House has made a real difference since taking office on January 20, 2021. The truth is that this is only a fraction of all the good President Biden has done and, more impressive still, he’s done it with a GOP leadership in the House and Senate that has tried to sabotage our progress every step of the way. Still, like every great leader, President Biden has found a way to win. In fact, he’s even managed to foster bipartisan cooperation on a number of his accomplishments as moderate Republicans side with common sense over partisan discipline.
I guess some folks are going to have to rewrite their talking points because Biden is rewriting the national narrative.
Yeah, I’m not sorry either.
Antjuan Seawright is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC, a CBS News political contributor, and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way.
