With Joe Biden headed out of the White House for good in a few weeks, we are finally starting to see some rumblings about just how terrible his presidency was. While sites like RedState have been talking about the litany of failures for years, the mainstream press had to wait until after the election before it was safe to acknowledge them. 

Enter Politico, which released a report detailing some of the programs that crashed and burned, leaving Democrats without much to run on during the 2024 election. The irony, though, is the reason why they crashed and burned. 

Joe Biden spent the first half of his presidency enacting plans to steer at least $1.6 trillion to transform the economy and spur a clean-energy revolution — only to watch those programs become afterthoughts in the 2024 election.

Now the core of his domestic legacy stands unfinished, with hundreds of billions of dollars left to deploy, and imperiled as Donald Trump prepares to take office.

Keep in mind, essentially all the money mentioned above was appropriated back in 2021, with the rest coming via the Inflation Reduction Act of mid-2022. This wasn't a case of Biden simply running out of time because he passed an infrastructure bill six months before the election. The administration had years to expand broadband and build the electric vehicle charging stations it promised, but the actual results were disastrous. 

Solar installations have surged to record levels, but the country is not adding enough zero-carbon electricity to meet Biden’s climate targets.

A $42 billion expansion of broadband internet service has yet to connect a single household.

Bureaucratic haggling, equipment shortages and logistical challenges mean a $7.5 billion effort to install electric vehicle chargers from coast to coast has so far yielded just 47 stations in 15 states.

A $42 billion expansion made in November of 2021 to expand broadband has connected zero homes to the internet. Meanwhile, and this garnered several mentions during the 2024 campaign, $7.5 billion appropriated for EV chargers has produced just 47 stations nationwide. For context, the program promised 500,000 chargers. 

What's so comical about this, though, is that the primary reason Biden's agenda fell flat is because of the very bureaucratic state he and his party created and protected. Much of the money was allocated to various government agencies that are staffed by far-left, career bureaucrats who wouldn't know efficiency if it punched them in the face. On the contrary, being as inefficient as possible represents job security for the bureaucracy. If they don't solve problems, then the money just keeps flowing. 

Hilariously, in the case of the EV chargers, government DEI requirements played a role in stifling the program. 

SEE: Where Are Those 500,000 EV Chargers Biden Promised? Turns Out They've Been Delayed By DEI Requirements

In order to qualify for a grant, applicants must "demonstrate how meaningful public involvement, inclusive of disadvantaged communities, will occur throughout a project’s life cycle." What "public involvement" means is unclear. But the Department of Transportation notes it should involve "intentional outreach to underserved communities."

The Department of Transportation was so caught up in trying to vet people based on absurd DEI measures that it stalled all of the administration's plans. You can't make this stuff up.

So, while the press tries to paint Biden as a victim of circumstance, it can't be ignored that he was one of the authors of that circumstance. His "agenda" was never anything but smoke and mirrors backed by massive congressional spending. There was very little tangible within it, and when election season came around, it suddenly became very hard to tout successes that didn't actually materialize. How do you run on expanding broadband when you couldn't expand broadband a single inch after being handed $42 billion? 

There is an obvious lesson here, which is that the bureaucratic state is terrible for America and needs deep reforms to stop the waste and inefficiency that infests it. Will Democrats who are crying about Biden's agenda being hampered support that? Of course, they won't. Instead, they'll keep making excuses and protecting the bureaucracy as if it were one of their own children because it is currently their sole source of power. Still, it is deeply ironic that their sacred cow played a role in Democrats face-planting in 2024. It was well-deserved.