President Joe Biden’s first year in office was one filled with hardships and obstacles, in which he faced an ongoing battle with a global pandemic, ended the country’s longest war in the Middle East, and made some questionable legislative decisions. 

Last week marked the end of Biden’s first year in office, and critics say he had more shortcomings than strengths. Even primarily left-wing media couldn’t put the president in a positive light. 

Despite having an incredibly revolutionary inauguration, Biden’s first year was a controversial one; from approval ratings at an all-time low to an absent vice president, it wasn’t an easy year for the president. The year 2021 certainly proved that the people didn’t vote for Biden. They simply voted against former President Donald Trump.

Controlling COVID-19

Biden’s biggest accomplishment this year has been his dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic that has taken over 900,000 lives over the last two years. With his first decision as president being a federal mask mandate, Biden gave a clear message to America: the pandemic would be taken seriously.

Despite managing to curb the spread of the original variants, nature wasn’t on Biden’s side as a new variant, Omicron, made its way around American cities. To deal with this rapidly spreading variant, the president is en route to make testing accessible for all citizens. In addition, the Biden administration has emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated. 

Tackling climate change

Biden has also cracked down on another serious issue plaguing America today: climate change. As promised in his campaign, Biden rejoined the international Paris Climate Agreement. Despite the agreement having no apparent means of enforcement, Biden has taken the right step. The signing of the accord holds great symbolic value, as the United States once again takes the lead in fighting the climate crisis. He also worked to assemble world leaders for a climate summit on Earth Day, urging them to increase the pace of action. 

Biden also worked to create a formidable team to combat climate change. Gina McCarthy, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), works with an extremely qualified team of specialists, including Micheal Regan, the EPA chief, and former Secretary of State John Kerry, an architect of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Additionally, he has issued a bill promising over $2.7 trillion in the American Jobs Plan to rebuild a cleaner U.S. economy. Not only does this create millions of jobs, but it will also support the transition to clean manufacturing and clean electricity. While the bill is yet to be passed, it is quite favorable to many activists.  

Nevertheless, activists are worried Biden isn’t doing enough. The U.S. is still the largest producer of greenhouse gases. Emissions rose 6.2% in 2021 alone — a far cry from Biden’s promise to cut emissions in half. Not to mention, the Build Back Better and American Jobs Plan is still floating in the Senate with little possibility of being passed soon. 

Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal

One bill that has been passed, however, is the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal. America’s infrastructure is aged and cannot support rapidly growing technological developments. The American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2021 Report Card gave American infrastructure a solid C-. The passage of the bill is quickly ensuring prosperity to Americans by keeping the U.S. in competition with China, upgrading old infrastructure, leveraging the private sector through the use of public-private partnerships, and effectively cutting down the cost for American taxpayers. Additionally, it ensured access to high-speed internet for all Americans and replenishes buildings, roads, and bridges to become more resistant to natural disasters.

The passage of the infrastructure bill has been a critical success for the Biden administration as it has been one of the first bills that have united the two American parties under the common goal of improving infrastructure to put America back in competition with its opponents.

Exacerbating the American border crisis

Biden has proven that his greatest weakness as president has been his inability to control the U.S. border crisis. As of September 2020, over 2 million illegal immigrants have been detained or deported at the Texas-Mexico border in sectors like Del Rio and Rio de Grande rivers. A confirmed 1.75 million people have immigrated illegally over land routes. 

The Biden administration paused all wall construction and ended the national emergency declaration on the southern border. The leniency of the new president encouraged immigrants to take their chances as they crossed American borders in vast numbers. In March and April alone, thousands of children were displaced and were unable to relocate their families. 

Biden also reallocated former President Donald Trump’s military funds towards social programs, further weakening the defense at the border. 

Trump’s strict immigration policy consisted of four key points: a path to citizenship for American-born children of undocumented immigrants (DREAMers), increased border security funding, ending the diversity visa lottery system, and placing restrictions on family-based immigration. This policy seemed to be very successful as border crossings hit an all-time low during Trump’s presidency.

Biden, however, was quick to dispose of the Trump policies in favor of his own. Since the beginning of his presidency, apprehensions at the border are at a record high, U.S. Border and Customs Enforcement has been exhausted of its resources and is severely underfunded, and millions of families have been either displaced or separated. 

Crime and anti-police sentiment

As “defund the police” sentiments have become more popular after the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in 2020, a severely underfunded and understaffed police force is under fire once again. Unfortunately, as the sentiments grow, so does the crime rate. 

Sixteen states in the U.S. have reported record-high crime rates, including Texas, Louisiana, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and California. 

Crimes against police officers have risen significantly. In 2021, there were 350 officers shot or killed by gunfire, as well as 103 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement officers. This number shows a 115% from 2020. 

After decreases in 2020, both property and violent crimes were on the rise in 2021. Thefts and car break-ins doubled in 2021. 

Biden must take the necessary step of condemning violence against officers as well as adequately funding law enforcement officers. The concerning rise of crime rates isn’t predicted to slow in 2022.

Foreign policy failures

The most significant reason for Biden’s sudden drop in image is his handling of the Afghanistan crisis. The war ended with a chaotic evacuation that stranded thousands of U.S. citizens and Afghans in a warzone. The president was notably absent and relied on senior military commander and his secretary of state to tell the Americans about a conflict that ended in American defeat. 

The decision to enter Afghanistan in 2001 has arguably been one of America’s worst, most emotionally guided decisions rather than logically driven. Unfortunately, the exit from Afghanistan looked eerily similar to the entry — hasty and ill-planned. 

Reactions on the world stage vary from amusement to sheer disbelief at the defeat of the U.S. – the current global superpower – to a seemingly puny militant group in a devastated country. In a matter of days, America, the world’s greatest superpower, had turned into the butt-end of Twitter memes. 

Not even weeks after the crisis in Afghanistan, the U.S. once again interfered in an international issue that could’ve been easily ignored. By interfering in a French-Australian nuclear-submarine deal, the U.S. dangerously went against its greatest ally: France. While the U.S. should’ve been working towards maintaining good relations with straining allyships, it was playing with fire by irking France. 

Not only was Biden ruining his allyships, but he was also aiding his opponents. Even after Congress, the Obama administration, and the Trump administration supported policies to block the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in Europe. 

The Biden administration completely ignored the concerns of the European Parliament, which passed a resolution in January calling for an immediate halt on construction. Biden went directly against the wishes of the European Union as he essentially blessed completion of the pipeline in an agreement with Germany. 

“The pipeline makes Western Europe more reliant on Russian gas. Ukraine, which used to be a major energy transit state, will become less secure as the pipeline replaces the capacity that used to run through its pipeline networks. It will free Russia to continue its coercive campaign and occupation of Ukrainian territory and to threaten other bordering states without their energy markets playing into the decisions.” said Chairman Roy Blunt. “Some experts believe that, by artificially increasing the price of gas by cutting the supply to Europe, Russia is using the energy crisis in Europe as a way to bully the Europeans into certifying the pipeline. The Biden administration contributed to this crisis by waiving sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act and the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act.”

Another foreign policy failure occurred when the U.S. reentered the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, which failed to halt Iran’s acquisition of nuclear arsenal. By reentering the deal, the U.S. formed a dangerous relationship with a country that sponsored terrorists and continues to target U.S. citizens and American allies in the Middle East.

The final, most damaging foreign policy failure of the Biden administration was the lack of foresight to invest in a defense budget to stay in competition with China. While China is continuously threatening the U.S. and its allies through the use of coercive diplomacy and aggressive military actions, the U.S. is making defense budget cuts. 

Biden cut Naval funding by $700 million and decreased Air Force spending by $3 billion in 2021 alone. As the president shrinks the U.S. military, he uses the money saved to invest in social reform programs. China has already seemed to take advantage of the U.S.’ ill-planning by rapidly advancing Chinese military technology.

A worsening economy

Biden gave a speech last week, marking his first year in office. In his oration, he mentioned the successful creation of jobs in the past year. While 210,000 jobs were created in November, it is a far cry from the Biden administration’s promise of creating 573,000 new jobs. In fact, instead of creating jobs, many American industries lost jobs in 2021.

The motor vehicles and manufacturing industry lost approximately 10,000 jobs. Merchandise and sales lost 20,000 jobs. Clothing and accessory stores lost roughly 18,000 jobs. And recreational jobs declined severely as well.

In addition to his inability to revive American industries, inflation has reached a record high of 7% from 0.9%. Experts predict these values to go further up over the next couple of years. Because of the inflation, Americans are paying more for basic items like food and clothes. Despite expenses rising, real wages have decreased significantly under the Biden administration. Essentially, people are earning lesser and lesser, even as inflation requires them to pay more for necessities.

Additionally, Americans are in the middle of an energy crisis. Adults are paying more for gas today than ever before. In 2021 alone, gas prices have risen by over 49%. Home heating costs have risen 30% to 54% during the Biden administration as well. American citizens are now paying double what they did before to pump gas and heat their houses.

Overall, the Biden administration has proven to be less than adequate through the past year. From uncontrollable inflation to problematic foreign policy, Americans are worried whether the U.S. will remain a global hegemonic power. Biden’s inability to unite his party, his government, or his country has cost him his reputation. 

It is too early to tell whether Biden will be successful in the 2024 elections, but Trump and the Republican party are reaping the benefits of Biden’s setbacks. 

For the future, Biden will have to make some bold decisions that go against his own party’s values: including tightening control over the U.S.-Mexico border, prioritizing the economy, and providing adequate funding for the military and law enforcement.