He’s gone from the Oval Office, but Joe Biden hasn't exactly faded into the background. It’s weird. Usually, when a president wraps up their term—especially one as chaotic and high-stakes as his—there’s this collective exhale and a slow drift into writing memoirs or painting bathtub portraits. But with Biden, the conversation is still incredibly loud.
People are still arguing. You’ve got one side looking at the CHIPS Act and the infrastructure bill as these generational "holy grail" wins, and the other side still pointing at the exit from Afghanistan or the sting of 2022 inflation as the real story. Honestly, both things can be true at the same time. That’s the nuance we usually lose in the 24-hour news cycle.
Biden’s career didn't start with the presidency, obviously. We’re talking about a guy who spent 36 years in the Senate and eight as VP. That’s a massive amount of institutional memory. Some people called him the "Senate's institutionalist," which is basically just a fancy way of saying he believed the system worked even when everyone else thought it was broken. Did it work? Well, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is probably the best evidence he’s got. It wasn't just a win for his party; it was a win for the idea that Republicans and Democrats could actually sit in a room without throwing chairs.
The Economic Gamble That's Still Playing Out
Look at the numbers. They’re kind of staggering. When Biden took office in 2021, the world was basically upside down. The American Rescue Plan dumped $1.9 trillion into the economy. Economists like Larry Summers warned it would trigger massive inflation. They weren't totally wrong. By June 2022, CPI hit 9.1%. That hurt. It hurt at the pump, it hurt at the grocery store, and it definitely hurt Biden's approval ratings.
But then look at the flip side.
While everyone was panicking about a recession that "experts" swore was coming every single month for two years, the jobs market just kept humming. We saw record-low unemployment—dropping to 3.4% at one point. That’s the lowest since 1969. You can’t just ignore that. The "Bidenomics" label was something the White House tried to make happen, sort of like "fetch" in Mean Girls, and while the branding was a bit clunky, the industrial policy behind it was real.
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Why the CHIPS Act Actually Matters for Your Phone
We talk about "national security" a lot, but the CHIPS and Science Act was basically Biden saying, "We can't rely on other countries for the brains of our electronics." It put $52 billion into domestic semiconductor manufacturing. This isn't just about computers. It’s about your car, your microwave, and the missiles the Pentagon buys.
Intel, TSMC, and Samsung started pouring billions into new plants in places like Ohio and Arizona because of this. It’s a return to "Made in America" that actually has some teeth. Whether it survives the long-term global market shifts is a different story, but for now, it’s a massive shift in how the U.S. does business.
Foreign Policy: The Highs and the Absolute Lows
You can't talk about Biden without talking about the world stage. It's where he felt most comfortable, but also where he faced his darkest days.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 was, by almost every objective measure, a disaster in execution. The images of people clinging to C-17s at Kabul airport? Those are burned into the American psyche. It was a chaotic end to a 20-year war that three previous presidents couldn't figure out how to stop. Biden took the hit. He said the buck stopped with him, and his polling never truly recovered from that moment.
Then came Ukraine.
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When Putin moved in February 2022, Biden did something a lot of people didn't expect: he unified NATO almost overnight. He didn't send American boots, but he sent HIMARS, Javelins, and billions in aid. It was a return to the Cold War era "leader of the free world" vibe. He spent decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a moment exactly like that.
- The Quad: He strengthened ties with Australia, India, and Japan.
- AUKUS: A massive deal to give Australia nuclear-powered subs (which really annoyed the French, but hey, geopolitics is messy).
- Israel-Gaza: This is the one that really split his own base. His "ironclad" support for Israel after October 7th created a massive rift with younger voters and Arab-American communities, especially in swing states like Michigan. It showed the limits of his old-school diplomacy in a world that’s moving much faster than the 1990s.
The Age Factor and the "Exit"
Let's be real: people talked about his age. A lot.
At 81, he was the oldest sitting president in history. Every stumble, every verbal slip-up was scrutinized under a microscope. It became a meme, a talking point, and eventually, a political liability. The debate in June 2024 was the turning point. It was painful to watch for a lot of people, regardless of their politics.
When he eventually stepped aside, it was a move that felt both inevitable and shocking. He’s one of the few people in history to actually give up the most powerful office in the world voluntarily because he thought it was better for the party and the country. That doesn't happen often. Usually, you have to be carried out or voted out.
What History Books Will Actually Say
Historians usually need 20 years to figure out if a president was "good" or not. Right now, we’re too close to it. We’re still feeling the effects of his judicial appointments—over 200 federal judges, including Ketanji Brown Jackson. That changes the legal landscape for a generation.
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And then there's the climate stuff. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was secretly the biggest climate bill in history. It put nearly $370 billion into green energy. If you see more EVs on the road or solar panels on your neighbor's roof, there’s a direct line back to that legislation.
It wasn't all sunshine, though. The border remained a massive headache. Record crossings and a system that’s basically held together with duct tape and hope created a political nightmare that he never quite got a handle on. It’s a complicated legacy. It’s a "middle-class Joe" persona mixed with high-level power brokering.
A Few Things to Keep in Mind Moving Forward
To really understand what the Biden era meant for the U.S., you have to look past the headlines and at the actual structural changes.
- Watch the manufacturing "super-cycle." Keep an eye on the factory construction spending. It skyrocketed under his watch. If those factories actually open and provide jobs, his economic legacy is set. If they stall, it’s a different story.
- The Judicial shift. Those 200+ judges are mostly young. They’ll be making rulings on everything from environmental law to labor rights for the next 30 years.
- NATO’s footprint. With Finland and Sweden now in the fold because of the pressure during his term, the map of Europe has fundamentally changed.
If you’re trying to wrap your head around his impact, stop looking at the polls from three years ago. Start looking at the cranes in the sky in the Midwest and the shifting alliances in the Pacific. That’s where the real story lives.
Actionable Steps for Tracking the Biden Legacy:
- Monitor the Treasury Department’s IRA tracker: This shows where the green energy money is actually landing in your local community.
- Check the Federal Judiciary homepage: You can see the ongoing impact of his appointees as they handle major appellate cases.
- Review the Department of Commerce reports on CHIPS Act implementation: This tracks the actual progress of those massive semiconductor plants being built in the U.S.