:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/adn/U3YGLBPQE5QY2FLXDGA7UKHQFE.jpg)
As Anchorage Democrats, we’d like to express our gratitude to President Joe Biden for his decades-long career and extraordinarily successful presidency, and the benefits that he brought to Alaska during his term of office.
Whether it’s been steering our nation through the COVID-19 pandemic or rebuilding America’s economy with bipartisan support, Biden has been the “steady hand at the wheel.”
Biden didn’t just make promises — he delivered to the American people and to Alaskans. HIs policies were instrumental in creating thousands of good-paying jobs, made historic investments in infrastructure, began to address the causes and impacts of climate change, and positioned the U.S. to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic with the strongest economy of the entire developed world.
These achievements include the American Rescue Plan Act, which funneled needed funds into the hands of Alaska’s small businesses to help them stay afloat during the COVID-19 shutdown, provided unemployment insurance for people who were laid off during the downturn, and aided Alaska state, local and tribal governments. Additionally, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill supported by our federal delegation, provided $7.6 billion for more than 1,800 specific projects, delivering funding for roads, bridges, ports and airports in Alaska ($3.7 billion), connect Alaskans to reliable, high-speed internet ($1.8 billion), and more than $480 million to improve Alaska’s infrastructure resilience, including more than $250 million specifically flood mitigation. The changes in prescription drug laws allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices — and reducing their cost — and capping out-of-pocket drug costs have brought relief for approximately 24,000 Alaskans enrolled in Medicare Part D.
His economic policies created more jobs in a four year period than any president before and bringing back tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs. The CHIP Act positioned the U.S. to be a leader in 21st-century manufacturing.
President Biden delivered for Alaska and our country with many other significant accomplishments: cutting child poverty rates in half with the Expanded Child Care Tax Credit; successfully fighting off attempts to gut the Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance coverage for a total of 242,873 of Alaskans; and appointing the first Black woman to the United States Supreme Court. Biden is arguably the most pro-labor president in U.S. history, championing the rights of workers to organize and bargain, and being the first president to join union workers on a picket line. His efforts benefited working families in other ways from working to outright cancel student debts for hundreds of thousands of Americans to beating big PHARMA to lower prescription drug prices, such as insulin, and allowing Medicaid to finally negotiate drug prices.
President Biden’s energy policies have focused on an optimistic but pragmatic balance to help the country transition to a brighter and cleaner energy tomorrow. His approval of the Willow oil development project balanced the need for critical energy resources while supporting the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The Willow project will create thousands of good-paying Alaska jobs and generate revenue for Alaska for decades to come.
Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race was a sad day for many Americans. But through his leadership, it also became a day of hope and optimism for the future of our nation. Biden has been a tireless and selfless leader during his decades-long tenure in elected office. His decision to step aside and endorse our vice president, Kamala Harris, is a testament to the fact that Joe Biden has and will always put this country and its people first.
As Alaskans and as Anchorage Democrats, we are grateful for President Biden’s immense service and sacrifice for our nation and know that the Biden presidency will be remembered as one of the most accomplished in modern history.
Michelle Turner is the president of the Anchorage Democrats; this commentary was endorsed by all of their officers. The Anchorage Democrats is an affiliate of the Alaska Democratic Party representing the Municipality of Anchorage, including Eagle River, Indian and Girdwood.
The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.