On the occasion of the first anniversary of his inauguration, American President Joe Biden defended his government record against criticism.

"It's been a year of challenges, but also a year of tremendous progress," Biden said at a White House news briefing on Wednesday.

"Records" have been achieved in terms of economic growth and the creation of jobs.

At the same time, Biden acknowledged that there was "a lot of frustration and fatigue" in the United States.

This is due to the corona pandemic and most recently the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

However, the country now has “instruments” to fight the corona virus: “vaccines, boosters, masks, tests, pills.” At the same time, the President vowed to decisively counter the high inflation in the country.

The inflation rate had recently risen to seven percent, the highest level in almost 40 years.

Negative headlines piled up

The Democrat succeeded ousted President Donald Trump in the White House on January 20, 2021. After initial successes, for example in the fight against the corona pandemic, the negative headlines increased for the 79-year-old, among other things because of the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, a resurgence in corona infections and high inflation. In addition, central reform projects, for example in social policy and climate protection, have not made any progress for months. Biden's approval ratings plummeted as a result. In the survey average, only 42 percent of voters approve of his work.

On Wednesday, the President blamed the opposition Republicans for blocking his reform plans.

He "didn't expect" that the "most important thing" for the Republicans was to hinder him in the implementation of his projects, said Biden.

However, central reform projects have so far failed due to opposition from the Democrats within the party.

As expected, Republicans blocked a Senate electoral law reform pushed by Biden on Wednesday evening.

Biden's Democrats failed because of a more than 100-year-old regulation, the so-called filibuster.

The rule states that for many bills, 60 of the 100 senators must agree to an end to the debate before there can be a vote at all.

One of the aims of the electoral law reform was to make it easier to vote in elections. It is one of Biden's most important projects. The Democrats accuse former President Donald Trump's Republicans of wanting to make voting more difficult, to the detriment of minorities in particular. Before the vote, Biden made it clear that he would not give up on reform plans. He said: "We haven't run out of options yet."

After the Republican blockade, the Democrats wanted to try to get an exception to the filibuster rule for this reform.

Because of dissenters in their own ranks, a failure of this project was also expected.

The Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate.

They control 50 seats, so exactly half.

In the event of a stalemate, Biden's Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also ex officio President of the Senate, will decide.