The First 100 Days: A Brief History and President Biden's Plans

It’s something we hear about every four to eight years. After all the pomp and circumstance of the inauguration of a new President, it’s time to get down to business and talk about the "first 100 days". Since FDR, Presidents have been making bold claims about what citizens can look forward to in the first stint of their time in the Oval Office. After hearing Biden’s plans, I became interested in the history of the first 100 days and the legacy created by this phrase. After doing a little research I compiled the “data” into a little guide to help understand what everyone is talking about.

The first time in American history that the "first 100 days" are referenced is actually after a President takes office. In one of his famous fireside chats during the summer of 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt reflects on his first couple of months in office saying, "I think that we all wanted the opportunity of a little quiet thought to examine and assimilate in a mental picture the crowding events of the hundred days which had been devoted to the starting of the wheels of the New Deal.”

So, in addition to Roosevelt leaving behind social security, victory in a world war, and the New Deal, he also left behind the infamous “100 days”. From Truman to Biden, Presidents feel the pressure to achieve their 100 days goals. Obama, inheriting a less than ideal economy due to the 2008 recession, passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Reagan laid out plans to cut taxes and reduce inflation. During Kennedy’s inauguration speech, he downplayed his first 100 days saying, “All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin!”

So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal in American political history. Political experts have been judging Presidents and their rate of productivity and effectiveness for close to a hundred years, and now it's Biden’s turn to be under the limelight. 46th President, Joe Biden has made a lot of promises to the American people hoping to curb COVID spread, return to globalization and erase the “America first” attitude the Trump administration was known for, and providing more relief to Americans from the effects of the Coronavirus. In his first hours in office, Biden has already rejoined the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization, and pulled back on the Trump administration Muslim ban. By his April 30th deadline Biden has said he wants 100 million doses of the vaccine to be distributed, go back to in-person learning at public schools, and pass a $1.9 trillion relief package.

That’s all fun and everything. Biden’s got a lot of hopes and dreams for the next couple of months, but is it plausible? Let’s begin with the vaccine- Fauci himself said that it would be a “challenge” in an interview for “Face the Nation”. 100 million shots in a hundred days mean around 1 million doses per day. Biden’s transition team hopes that about 33 million people would be given both vaccines. Since the vaccine first became available in mid-December, about 20.5 million doses have been given. So, logistically it makes sense for 100 million doses to be administered by April 30th but only by a slim margin. They’ve got to make sure they’re keeping a steady pace and not slow down. It’s a hefty goal but Fauci believes it's possible so, I believe it's possible.

What about the passage of the $1.9 trillion relief package? Biden’s American Rescue Plan includes stimulus checks of $1,400 to Americans, money towards vaccine distribution efforts, and the extension of safety net precautions into the fall. Biden’s hope is that he can sign this bill into law by mid-March. Luckily for Biden, there is a democratic majority in the House and the Senate. However, moderate Democrats want the plan to limit who receives the stimulus check to low to middle-income Americans. On top of this, Biden still needs ten Republicans to satisfy the vote, which some Democrats are skeptical of getting. In my opinion, yeah, Biden probably should scale back. It doesn’t make sense for people with $100,000 incomes to be getting money when they probably haven’t felt much hurt financially from COVID. Meanwhile, millions of Americans have suffered job cuts and loss and are barely living on a survivable wage. Unless Biden makes cuts to his plan, I find it hard to believe he will be able to get the support he needs to pass the American Rescue Plan. Needless to say, it is a work in progress, and we will just have to wait and see if his plan passes by the end of April.

Now onto, the “reopening” of schools. I say re-opening in quotes because schools are still open. Teachers and students are still working diligently to get an education, navigating the difficult circumstance that is COVID-19. So, it is not that Biden hopes for schools to reopen, it is that he wants them to go back in person. For this to happen, it is dependent on some circumstances which are out of the federal government’s control, as well as how other plans in place are played out. Should a third of the population (100 million) get fully vaccinated (getting both doses), it may be plausible. As of right now, as mentioned before, Biden’s team is hopeful of 33 million people to be fully vaccinated by the end of April. Overall, COVID cases would need to make a drastic drop, and vaccines would need to have a drastic incline for it to be safe for most elementary and middle schools to be “reopened”. Coming from someone whose mother works in a public school where they are in person, it just doesn’t seem realistic for schools to go back in the near future, especially with the new variants making their way across the US.

Now reviewing a couple of Biden’s key goals, I believe he will have a semi

-successful first 100 days. After inheriting a nation in crisis from a pandemic, a recession, a trade war, national division, and racial injustice (to name a few), the President has his work cut out for him. He has already taken strides at rebuilding and continues to keep his eye on the prize. That being said, we are living in unprecedented times (please don’t hate me for use that term for the billionth time in all of the media), and we have no idea what the next four months have in store. We can only hope Biden’s first 100 days are as successful as FDR’s, and we begin to see a shift in America.