NEW ORLEANS — President Biden’s visit to New Orleans on Thursday lasted only a few hours, but in his first 100 days, Mr. Biden has tackled several big challenges.
Arguably, no challenge was bigger than the COVID-19 pandemic and getting Americans vaccinated.
Recent polls put his approval rating above 50 percent, but you don’t have to look far to find critics
Biden came into office looking to “heal” the country. Progress on that front is hard to measure, but when it comes to the economy battered by the pandemic, Claude Sharp who was visiting New Orleans from Knoxville, says Biden should be commended.
“They’re helping America get back on its feet as far the stimulus goes. It’s only 100 days there are things that they’ve done well and some I don’t think they’re handling well,” said Sharp.
The President first put his focus on a roughly $2 trillion stimulus package to address the deep impact of COVDI-19 in the U.S. That money is being injected into the economy in various ways, from stimulus checks in people’s bank accounts to a $28 billion fund to revitalize restaurants.
“Any time you can get anything through congress, particularly a bill that size, that’s a success,” said Ed Chervenek.
Ed Chervenek is a political scientist at the University of New Orleans. Chervenek said there’s cyclical nature to politics in the U.S. Under Joe Biden, Chervenek says the U.S. is now in a cycle of big government.
“Here what we’re seeing is a lot of reach coming out of Washington D.C., and that can make people nervous,” said Chervenek.
That big-government approach is just one concern for Craig Bennen.
“His agenda is so far left, so socialist driven,” said Bennen.
Bennen is a loyal Republican. We’ve been visiting him since the 2020 election. 100 days into the Biden administration, Bennen said there’s not much the President has done that he agrees with. In his view, the Democrats’ big spending is encouraging people not to work…
“Look at the handouts and the stimulus. There are jobs out there now, help wanted signs everywhere and there are people sitting home living off the fat the government is giving them,” said Bennen.
“I’m not a partisan person, but it’s funny how Republicans always think about debt when there’s Democrat is in office,” said Shaun Mena.
Shaun Mena said Biden is a welcomed change to the Trump years. While republicans are bashing the President for massive amounts of spending, Mena says the economic times demand such spending.
“Sometimes you got to spend money to make money and that’s what Biden is doing right now,”
In speaking with the voters today, there is one point that they all seemed to agree on, and that is the state of division in the country. They all said it’s going to be a long time before that changes, regardless of who is in the White House.