Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
- A new Wall Street Journal analysis looks at Biden's track record for keeping his campaign promises.
- The economy is the one category where nearly all of Biden's major promises remain in limbo.
- Stalled are student-loan relief, a minimum-wage hike, and a reversal of the 2017 Trump tax cuts.
Four years ago, Joe Biden promised that if elected, he'd turn the country's pandemic-ravaged economy around with an aggressive agenda that included student-loan relief, a minimum-wage hike, and a repeal of Donald Trump's tax-cuts for the wealthy.
As he hits the campaign trail once more, much of his economic agenda remains stalled, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal.
Biden did reach two ambitious economic goals, the Journal notes. He signed a massive $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law, and he also signed a measure that lets the federal government negotiate lower prescription prices for Medicare recipients.
But the bulk of Biden's promised economic agenda remains in limbo, mostly due to Congressional opposition, the Journal noted.
Biden's 2020 campaign promise to reverse Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy was stymied by the Senate, and though he did manage to temporarily resurrect the child tax credit under his pandemic stimulus law, that credit expired at the end of 2021.
Biden's proposal to cancel as much as $20,000 of federal borrower's student-loan debt was overturned in the Supreme Court in June, though finding some other avenue to debt relief remains a priority for Democrats.
Also on ice due to congressional roadblocks are Biden's 2020 campaign promises of 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, his plan to spend $775 billion over 10 years on child and elder care, and an increase of the federal minimum wage to $15.
The Wall Street Journal's analysis looks at how well Biden kept key 2020 campaign promises in the categories of the economy, immigration, foreign policy, climate, and criminal justice and guns.
It was in the climate category that Biden had greatest success in seeing his key campaign promises through.
During his presidency, Biden has followed through on his vow to rejoin the 2015 Paris accord and to revoke a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. His $2 trillion Inflation Reduction Act included new spending on renewable energy and incentives for electric vehicles.
One key climate promise — to stop all new offshore drilling — was broken last year through recent federal oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico.