Looking back, a president’s first hundred days in office actually do matter. It all started with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When he rose to office in 1933, he immediately started making his mark. In the first hundred days alone, he had passed 76 bills, signed laws that gave government relief to farmers and unemployed people, and faced the economic conundrums head-on. The 100 day mark in a president’s time is considered the time when a president’s leadership and power are starting to change the world around them. After Franklin D. Roosevelt’s big debut, the first hundred days of a president’s term became a big deal, but our newer president’s are starting to not live up to Roosevelt’s high standards.
Let’s take a look at a graph that shows the number of laws passed by our presidents during their first hundred days. As you can see, the graph shows that the number of laws passed by our president’s decreases over time. But why? To put it simply, more laws are passed during times of crisis. FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) was president during the Great Depression, so during that time, many MANY laws would have had to be passed. Also, when one party controls most of the Congress and the president, it has a big impact on the number of laws passed in the first hundred days, because it makes it a lot quicker to pass a law. Because of our currently equally divided Congress, laws take a lot longer to pass. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s important to have equal representation so fair and just laws are the only laws that exist. Just because a president passed more laws in their first hundred days, it doesn’t make them a good president. It just makes them accomplished.
Joe Biden’s first hundred days aren’t over, but of course, changes are being made. Who knows what president’s will accomplish in the future?
Diya V. 4/1/2021
