Joe Biden entered office unburdened by radical policy expectations. Throughout his election campaign he had emphasised that he was a moderate, “not a socialist”. Many spoke of the 78-year-old as a “transitional president” who had performed his principal role: the eviction of Donald Trump from the White House.
Yet in his first 100 days, as our US editor, Emily Tamkin writes, Mr Biden has been one of the most activist American presidents in recent history. Last month, he succeeded in passing his landmark $1.9trn (9 per cent of US GDP) economic relief bill – a stimulus more than twice as large as that enacted by Barack Obama in 2009. The bill included one-off payments of $1,400 for Americans earning up to $75,000, the extension of federal unemployment support ($300 a week), $350bn of financial aid to state and local governments and a more generous child tax credit of $3,000 per child for some families.
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