Conclusion

All of these circumstances have piled up to one of the largest political traffic jams in recent memory, filled with challenges within and beyond the nation’s frontiers and coming at a critical time ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The question now is whether the President will be able to pass some congressional goals and if American life will be able to improve regarding issues like the pandemic and inflation by summer. This could likely spell good fortune for the President and his congressional majorities later this year in the upcoming midterm elections. 

On January 19, 2022, President Biden held a press conference at the White House, in which he outlined much of his message going into the midterm election season. He emphasized that while he would keep fighting to do everything in his power to help ease the continuing burdens of COVID-19 and inflation on the American people, there has been significant progress, given the impressive roll-out of vaccines and better unemployment rates thanks to the American Rescue Plan. He also touted other legislative wins, like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and stood by his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. On the issue of Russia and Ukraine, he warned that there would be dire consequences on Putin’s economy if he were to start a full-scale invasion. As for the rest of President Biden’s agenda, he opened the door to a scaled-down or split-up version of the Build Back Better bill, while opening the door to a potential bipartisan solution on voting rights. Lastly, with his eyes set on the 2024 presidential election, the President made it extremely clear that he would be keeping Vice President Kamala Harris on his ticket, and that he has been very satisfied with her performance thus far.