WHAT BIDEN PROMISED TO DO ON DAY ONE AND WHAT HE ACTUALLY DELIVERED

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U.S. Politics – January 22, 2021

TrueNewsBlog- TNB

By: Nathaniel Ballantyne

(TrueNewsBlog) – During the presidential campaign leading to the historic election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the president has made several promises about things he pledged to do on day one of his presidency. TrueNewsBlog compiled a list of actions and found that at the exceptions of a few actions listed below, Biden had largely kept his promises.

Here are the promises he didn’t keep and the reasons why:

“On day one, I’ll move to: eliminate the Trump tax cut for the super-wealthy, cut the unjustified loopholes in our tax code, and use that money to invest in America’s future.” June 27, 2019

“On Day One, if I’m president of the United States, you’re going to see the end of Trump’s tax cut for the top 10th of 1%.” (Said during an address to the Philadelphia AFL-CIO in September 2019, according to Bloomberg)

These two economic priorities were put forward before the pandemic and the subsequent recession that led Biden to overhaul his initial economic agenda.

“My first day of office, I’m going to send a bill to the Congress repealing the liability protection for gun manufacturers, closing the background check loopholes and waiting period.” Feb. 20, 2020.

This is the most conspicuous First Day pledge that Biden has abandoned, an apparent concession to the reality of slim Democratic margins in Congress and a shift in post-pandemic priorities.

“I’d double that tax [on foreign profits] and do that on Day One.” July 9, 2020

This was probably a Biden ad lib.

“On Biden’s first day in office, he will restore federal employees’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, and will direct his agencies to bargain with federal employee unions over non-mandatory subjects of bargaining.” The Biden plan for strengthening worker organizing, collective bargaining, and unions

Biden is scheduled to sign this one today. (A White House spokesman told Politico “We’re thinking about ‘Day One promises’ not literally on Jan. 20, but across multiple days.”) Even without that caveat, Biden did indeed keep the overwhelming majority of Day One pledges that we could find from his speeches, press releases and interviews over the last two years.

WHAT DAY ONE DOESN’T MEAN: Biden has long promised to outline an immigration plan on Day One, and he followed through on that pledge. That might suggest that immigration is his top legislative priority. Not so fast. He’s made it clear that his Covid-19 relief and stimulus bill is first up.

And even after that, there’s still no consensus among Democrats about what comes next. During an interview Thursday, CEDRIC RICHMOND, senior adviser to the president, confirmed to us that just because an immigration proposal was sent to the Hill didn’t mean it was Biden’s biggest priority — congressional leaders will have to decide what to prioritize next.

“We’re not going to just enforce our will,” Richmond said. “They have to buy into it. … But I believe him sending it up so early is a statement of values and a statement of priority, and that’s the key to it.” We hear from sources on both sides of the Capitol that any immigration plan would be much narrower than the sweeping 2013 plan.

We will continue to watch the Biden administration to see whether the president will continue to keep his promises.