As Joe Biden’s presidency comes to an end, the time has come for taking stock of his performance in that position of public trust. Judged by Biden’s effect on property rights, he has done exceptionally badly.
President Biden was elected on the false notion that he would govern from the middle of the road. Instead, he governed from the far Left.
Rather than bringing in experienced moderate and centrist Democrats capable of working across the aisle, Biden handed the reins to extremist ideologues, acolytes of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and Left-wing political zealots. For instance, Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission, Tim Wu at the White House and Rohit Chopra at the FTC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Rather than seeking consensus by forging bipartisan legislation where a foundation for such constructive efforts lies, Biden force-fed Republicans, independents and moderate Democrats the most extreme, divisive policy prescriptions. A few disreputable examples are:
Heavy-handed rules and lavish government subsidies to force electric vehicles on the country and outlaw internal-combustion-engine-powered cars, SUVs and trucks.
Trillions of taxpayer dollars wasted, including in the American Rescue Plan, that supercharged inflation to levels not seen in four decades. This form of hidden taxation has caused American families unnecessary economic stress and financial difficulty.
Weak patent policies, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s wholesale, deliberate misinterpretation of the Bayh-Dole Act’s march-in provision, which has loomed over technology transfer for a year, while the National Institutes of Health has issued an eleventh-hour version of price controls. Rather than standing up for the TRIPS Agreement’s IP protections, Biden went all in on adopting a patent-stealing exception.
Imposing overly restrictive export controls that punish American innovator companies more than they bind China.
Enacting drug price controls in the socialistic, misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act.” These threaten the continued U.S. lead in biopharmaceutical innovation because government-set prices reduce revenues that fund high-risk, high-reward R&D, which is key to American innovation.
Income redistribution through unlawful student loan forgiveness schemes. Biden has taken from the working class, people who didn’t take on debt to go to school and other financially prudent Americans to bail out the irresponsible.
Vast expansion of the Administrative State, multiplying the regulatory burden on many parts of the U.S. economy, businesses large and small, and American life.
Reviving obsolete, subjective antitrust policies and procedures, and imposing sweeping measures that have assaulted objective, empirical antitrust standards. Biden weaponized antitrust against routine mergers and acquisitions that would have benefited consumers and create dynamic competition, wealth and jobs.
Forcing unionization, PRO Act style, through regulatory actions, even in right-to-work law states.
These examples beg the question: How much damage to private property rights has Biden’s wrong-headed policies caused?
How much innovation has his administration murdered in the crib? How much wealth was never created because the economic activity that otherwise would have occurred never did? How much has Biden-caused heightened risk and uncertainty frozen entrepreneurs, investors and corporations from pursuing the most economically and strategically sensible paths forward that would have yielded the greatest benefit?
The Biden legacy is one of leaving the nation less well off, less prosperous, less free, less thriving, less united. America is left with less secure property rights, less economic freedom, and less security — a sorry place to be just one year before the United States’ 250th anniversary of declaring our independence from a tyrant. In a sense, we may be repeating that exercise at this very time.
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