A copy of the White House's End of Year memo of so-called accomplishments was made public on Saturday morning thanks to Mike Allen of Axios AM. As Allen makes note of, of course, "Build Back Better [is] in limbo," which is regarded as the centerpiece of President Joe Biden's agenda.
Biden's Year 1 accomplishments including COVID vaccines outlined in new memo - Axios https://t.co/JdNmndAG48
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) December 18, 2021
Yet the White House still thinks that "In spite of unprecedented crises and opposition from Congressional Republicans, the President and Congressional Democrats got an enormous amount done for the American people in 2021."
There's a section on "Following the Science to Beat Back the Pandemic," which points out in part that "At this time last year: less than 1% of Americans were fully vaccinated." It's worth noting that the COVID vaccine was approved by the FDA on December 11, 2020. In other words, "at this time last year," it had only been available for one week.
It goes unmentioned, though, that more Americans have died in 2021 from COVID than in 2020.
The section on "Historic Economic Growth and Americans Back to Work" mentions a variety of topics, such as how there have been a significant reduction in unemployment claims. The story on the economy isn't complete, though, without sharing how dismal the jobs reports have been during Biden's time in office.
Further, for all that the White House may think it has to celebrate, the American people don't see it the same way that the Biden administration does. Polls consistently give the president low marks, in most if not all issue areas, including the economy. The RealClearPolitics (RCP) average has Biden facing a 55.4 percent disapproval rating on this issue.
Perhaps the most laughable headers is saved for towards the end. Recall how the Biden administration has bragged about how Americans have supposedly saved on gas prices, from pitifully distorted graphs showing a savings of two cents, to coming after Townhall for covering the president's remarks.
Well, there's a section addressing "Aggressive Actions to Address Prices," which takes a victory lap on two areas of failure facing the Biden administration, on supply chain issues as well as those gas prices:
Aggressive Actions to Address Prices: The President has taken action to address supply chain blockages and address price increases, including a historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and signing a Competition Executive Order that is already lowering the prices or hearing aids.
- Supply Chains: The number of containers sitting on the docks at ports for over a week has been cut by half since the beginning of November, and store shelves are stocked for the holiday season.
- Gas Prices: The price of gas at the pump has decreased nearly 10 cents since its peak, and continuing to fall.
However, a quick search of "supply chain issues continue" brings up plenty of results, including such headlines as:
- "Supply chain issues continue, impacting holiday shopping, prices, and product availability," from Larissa Scott with ABC Action News Tampa Bay on December 14
- "Supply chain issues continue to disrupt U.S. agriculture," from Jennifer Whitlock with Texas Farm Bureau on December 13
- "Holiday scams increase as pandemic and supply chain issues continue," from Amber Pellicone with WCJB, a local ABC outlet in Gainesville, Florida on December 13
The supply chain issue also looks to be affecting Americans in a particular way this holiday season. Just on Friday, Kelly Tyko and Naomi Ludlow warned for USA Today that "Cream cheese isn't the only shortage that could affect your Christmas amid supply chain issues."
On November 12, Washington University in St. Louis published a piece with comments from Panos Kouvelis, director of The Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation at Washington University in St. Louis, who indicated that the supply chain issues are likely to continue into 2022.
On November 18, Pennsylvania State University published "Supply-chain problems likely to continue, Behrend professor says."
And, as Madeline reported last month, a Morning Consult/POLITICO poll released at the time showed that 62 percent of registered voters believe Biden bears some responsibility for supply chain issues.
As for gas prices, while they may be falling across the nation, it's hard to forget that under the Biden administration the American people still faced some of the highest gas prices in years, including during Thanksgiving.
The memo was circulated to Democratic lawmakers from White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield.