Hope jostles with fear in US

Jobless claims

Jobless claims were running around 225,000 a week before the pandemic struck with force last March when weekly jobless claims surged to 6.9 million and sent the US economy into a deep recession, The Associated Press reported on Friday.

The International Monetary Fund has predicted the US economy contracted by 4.3 percent in 2020, and will rebound to grow by 3.1 percent in 2021.

But perhaps the most immediate and toughest task for the Biden administration is to fulfill the logistics of getting COVID-19 vaccines administered across the country.

Officials had vowed that 20 million doses would be administered by the end of 2020. So far just over 12.4 million doses have been distributed, but only 2.79 million actually administered, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, there are concerns that Biden's presidency could be stymied, as the Atlantic Council cautioned in its forecast of top risks for 2021.

"Joe Biden's ability to govern will be constrained, especially if Republicans retain Senate leadership," the Washington-based organization said in a report in mid-December. "In his last days, President Donald Trump is making it as difficult as possible for his successor."

On Sunday, Nancy Pelosi was narrowly reelected as speaker of the House of Representatives in a new Congress that convened in the final weeks of Trump's presidency, by earning 216 votes versus 209 for Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.

Unless Democrats win both runoff elections in the state of Georgia on Tuesday, control of the Senate would stay with Republicans.

"Divided government brings immense frustration, especially for a new president with a lengthy agenda," Jillson said. "But historically divided government has not barred the passage of innovative legislation."

Biden seemed to have grasped the country's reality in 2020 well and is determined to address it.

In the last week of the year, he tweeted, "From COVID-19 and the economy to climate change and racial justice-our nation is facing four historic crises at once."

"I'm filled with fresh hope about the possibilities of better days to come," he wrote on Twitter on Dec 31.

In a separate post, Biden showed a picture of himself in casual attire, smiling and pointing forward, with a one-liner: "Here's to 2021".