If the rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump were decided based on who enacted more of their legislative agenda, the race would already be over.
In the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump listed his top 10 legislative priorities as part of his “
Contract with the American Voter,” which included repeal of the Affordable Care Act, infrastructure investment, harsher prison sentences for immigration violations, and full funding of a border wall to be reimbursed by Mexico. None of that reached his desk. The only wish list items that did were a military spending bill and a tax cut bill, the latter of which incorporated a part of a third item, an expanded child tax credit.
Biden fared much better with his core agenda. In July 2020, as he campaigned for the presidency, he laid out a vision for rebuilding the middle class through investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, and clean energy. In November 2021, he signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Then, in August 2022, he signed the CHIPS bill, which invests $280 billion in semiconductor manufacturing. Days later, he signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which invests $370 billion in clean energy and related infrastructure, along with provisions designed to reduce health care costs.
