Biden White House lays out the ways in which Americans are better off now than under Trump

Although President Joe Biden had decent approval ratings back in the spring, recent polls haven’t been nearly as encouraging for the 79-year-old Scranton native — who, according to Gallup, only enjoyed 43% approval during the first half of December. And Sen. Joe Manchin’s declaration, on Fox News, that he is still a “no” vote on the Build Back Better Act won’t help. Some Democratic strategists have argued that Biden, regardless of BBB, needs to do a much better job of selling his accomplishments — and according to Axios, a year-end memo from the Biden White House to fellow Democrats lays out some things they should be bragging about.

When President Ronald Reagan was seeking reelection in 1984, a prominent theme of his campaign was, “Are you better off now than you were before Reagan’s presidency?” And similarly, the late 2021/almost 2022 Biden White House memo argues that Americans are much better off now under Biden than were when Donald Trump was still president a year ago.

“The White House will send a year-end recap to Democrats on the Hill and allied groups, arguing that Americans are better off after one year of President Biden than when President Trump left office,” Axios Mike Allen reports. “Why it matters: The memo, ‘2021: POTUS Delivered Results for Working Families,’ uses data to frame Biden's Year 1 as a season of accomplishment, despite the collapse of Build Back Better at year's end.”

Allen adds that the memo’s “featured metrics” include “vaccinations, school openings, unemployment, economic growth and child poverty.”

Axios has obtained a copy of a graphic that the Biden White House is including in the memo, and it offers some Biden/Trump contrasts. For example, the graphic reads, “Before President Biden took office: less than 1% of Americans were fully vaccinated. Today, more than 71% of American adults are fully vaccinated.”

The graphic also says, “Before President Biden took office: only 46% of schools were open. Today: 99% of schools are open.”

How much the memo will help Democrats in the 2022 midterms remains to be seen. In the U.S., many presidents have watched their parties suffer major midterms losses — from Reagan in 1982 to Obama in 2010 to President Bill Clinton in 1994. But Reagan, Obama and Clinton were all reelected, whereas Trump — after the blue wave of 2018 — was voted out of office two years later.