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. //

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. //

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.