The Presidency / The First Year

Gold plate on back of chair that says "the president"

Joe Biden at one year

Presidential experts evaluate the 46th president's first year in office

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First Year 2017 logo

Donald Trump at one year

White House veterans and Miller Center scholars evaluate the 45th president's first 365 days

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Featured Video

First Year Project Introduction

Watch this overview of the First Year Project

Money

Economic Issues

End magical fiscal thinking

A new president’s first budget will and should reflect the vision on which he or she campaigned. It must also reflect the nation’s fiscal and economic needs, both cyclical and structural.
Jared Bernstein
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Smokestacks

Energy and the Environment

The wisdom of a carbon tax

If the president wanted to alleviate the direct burden on earners–individual and corporate–he or she could offset the revenue loss by creating a carbon tax.
William Gale
Brookings Institution
Arrows

Economic Issues

Tough choices

Given the projections of growing deficits, record levels of debt, unsustainable entitlement programs, and the negative effects all of these have on the economy and families’ well-being, attempting to avoid dealing with our fiscal challenges would be extremely detrimental.
Maya MacGuineas
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
Lyndon Johnson

Health

Prescription for success

The passage of Medicare and Medicaid represented one of the most significant accomplishments of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Together, they formed critical components of perhaps the most successful "first year” presidency in U.S. history.
Guian McKee
Miller Center
Caduceus

Health

Bend the health care cost curve

In 2014, health care spending in the United States rose 5.3 percent to $3 trillion, or $9,523 per person. Controlling health care costs is important to the long-term health of the United States’ economy and its people.
Raymond C. Scheppach
Miller Center

Elections

Looking to Ronald Reagan

Jeff Chidester on how Reagan used tough talk during the 1980 campaign
Jeff Chidester
Miller Center