WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will cross the 100-day mark of his presidency on Friday, an arbitrary date on the calendar, but a decades-old standard used to judge presidents.
The spotlight has been on the president’s first 100 days since he was sworn in and vowed to use that time to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and reverse many policies of former President Donald Trump.
Biden set a slew of goals to achieve within his first months in office, and while there is nothing in U.S. law stipulating what he must get done in that time, historically, presidents, Congress and the media have looked at the first 100 days of an administration as a benchmark of progress, to set the tone of the administration’s priorities and to judge its success so far.
“Presidents feel compelled to stack up some points on the first 100-day scoreboard to show that they’re leaders of action, to set the agenda and what kind of leader they’re going to be,” said Terri Bimes, associate teaching professor of political science at University of California–Berkeley.
Scholars trace the importance of the first 100 days back to the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose swift action in the first months of his term to combat the Great Depression made his administration a standard by which presidents have since been held.
He passed 76 laws, according to FiveThirtyEight, rapidly pushed through legislation that gave the government the power to regulate the stock market, set the minimum wage and close American banks for a bank holiday. In a radio address after his first 100 days passed, Roosevelt used the phrase “first 100 days.”
Since then, administrations, political commentators and the media have looked at the amount of legislation a president has passed, the effectiveness of actions taken and public perception and compared it to the standard set by Roosevelt.
Anthony Badger, a historian of American politics and presidencies, writes in his 2009 book “FDR: The First Hundred Days” that even if the measure is arbitrary, presidents have still felt the need to hold themselves to it.
“Presidents have been expected to follow FDR’s lead,” Badger said.
President Franklin Roosevelt at his home in Hyde Park, New York, in 1937.Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library
Biden’s term began as the Senate was conducting its second impeachment trial of Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Congress then spent weeks negotiating and passing Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus bill, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. He also introduced his $2.25 trillion jobs and infrastructure proposal, which is expected to be brought up in Congress in the coming weeks.
The president signed a slew of executive actions right out of the gate, including reversals of some of Trump’s hardline immigration policies and orders aimed at expanding resources to combat the pandemic. Biden’s stated goal of administering 200 million COVID-19 vaccines in his first 100 days was met early, the administration said.
President George W. Bush chats with members of Congress at a pre-lunch reception to mark his 100th day in office in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 30, 2001H. Darr Beiser, USAT
Still, Biden’s administration faced early challenges with the situation at the southern border, where a surge in migrants, including unaccompanied minors, forced Biden to tell potential migrants not to come to the U.S. as the administration prepared its strategy.
Biden plans to travel to Georgia to mark his 100th day in office in the state that swung his way in the presidential election and elected two Democratic senators.
Apart from being a date by which to judge the president, research suggests a president’s first 100 days are also heavy in legislative action and executive actions.
According to GovTrack, seven laws have been enacted in the current Congress, which is low compared to the number of laws passed in past presidencies. According to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, Barack Obama signed 14 laws, George W. Bush signed seven and Bill Clinton signed 22 in their first 100 days. That compares to 76 for Roosevelt and 53 for Harry Truman.
Bimes’ research with Casey Dominguez and Dan Grushkevich shows that Biden has signed more reversals of a previous administration’s actions in the first 100 days than any president in history, she said. He has also signed the largest number of executive actions, which don’t require passage through Congress, but are tenuous because they can be withdrawn by a future president.
President Barack Obama addresses a prime time press conference on his 100th day in office in the East Room of the White House on April 29, 2009.Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images
Trump also boasted about signing the most executive orders in his first 100 days, Bimes noted.
“You get the sense that they’re trying to outdo one another,” she said.
A study by professor Casey Dominguez, political science and international relations professor at the University of San Diego, found that presidents are more successful at passing legislation through Congress within their first 100 days in office compared to other times in their administrations, particularly if they are functioning in a politically divided government.
But research by John Frendreis, Raymond Tatalovich and Jon Schaffhas of Loyola University Chicago has shown that legislative pushes have been less fruitful in modern administrations than they were in Roosevelt’s time. The authors attribute the discrepancy to changes in how a modern Congress works, including a longer process to push through legislation.
Bimes looks at a combination of laws passed, Cabinet confirmations, executive orders, reversals and other factors to determine what a president has accomplished in the first 100 days.
President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a rally at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on April 29, 2017, the 100th day of his presidency.Jeremy Long, Lebanon Daily News
Biden can’t be expected to achieve the same amount of legislative success as Roosevelt, Bimes said, given the narrowly divided Congress he faces.
“It’s an arbitrary measure, yes,” Bimes said, but “there’s so much media fanfare around the first 100 days and presidents feel compelled to rack up the points.”
President Donald Trump on Saturday marked his 100th day in office by claiming historic action on his agenda, renewing promises on health care and taxes and attacking the news media for misleading Americans.
Time
Published
11:49 am UTC Apr. 25, 2021 Updated
11:49 am UTC Apr. 25, 2021
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
