Biden Policy Review
The Biden administration made an announcement on October 5, 2023, that the planned border wall located in the Rio Grande Valley—the border between Texas and Mexico—will resume construction. After Biden’s adamant contempt for a border wall, the decision follows what was a near-shutdown of the government.
According to The Wall Street Journal, this move could appear to be a desperate policy reversal in attempt to lessen the number of immigrants who have unlawfully crossed the border. However, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told The Wall Street Journal that the Biden administration must move ahead with the construction because of the requirement to spend the remainder of the budget set aside for the border wall in 2019 by the end of the current fiscal year.
Amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, people are beginning to examine the current President’s policies, both foreign and economic. Biden’s foreign policy aimed at “normalization,” or the idea of repairing alliances that were formally cut by the Trump administration (ABC). During his time in office, Biden has begun implementing plans for the Indo-Pacific Strategy, which centers on building up relations with countries in the regions of Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Oceania (Indo-Pacific Strategy). The current state of the normalization plan has been indefinitely shifted with the conflict in Gaza and Israel. Biden is now having to strategize, and potentially enter an alliance with Israel, which shifts the movement of the strategy for the time being (ABC). It has also become unclear what role Iran has played in the Hamas attack, muddying the process of normalization.
Considering the upcoming 2024 presidential election, Biden’s economic policies have also come under close review. Biden came into office looking to move from the “trickle-down” policies and towards building the economy from ‘the middle out and the bottom up,” (The White House). The White House reports having added 13 million jobs to the American workforce, and an additional 10 million applications filed for small businesses in 2021 and 2022, going on record as the strongest two years for small businesses. However, during the pandemic it is reported by The New York Times that the cost of living seems to have skyrocketed. Private sector hourly rates have been reported to average at around $17, but this still is not enough to cover many basic needs of American families (NYT). The Biden administration is looking to repair the housing market, however people fear it will lead to a large wave of inflation (NYT).
