The True Implications Of The Biden Victory

The 2020 election marked a major turning point in the history of our country. The American people were presented with two options, a candidate who endorses white supremacy, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and doesn’t take responsibility for his actions and a candidate who ran to give the American people a chance to revive democracy and build the country they wanted. Fortunately, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the presidential election making history as Harris will not only be the first female vice president but also the first Black and South Asian vice president. The fact still remains that approximately 74,000,000 Americans voted for Donald Trump, a devastating figure because the majority of those people voted for him because they love him, his policies, and his values. In contrast to those who voted for Trump, when you examine the data from the ~ 81,000,000 people who voted for Biden, most settled for Biden because he was the lesser of two evils rather than because they whole-heartedly supported Mr. Biden. Since many Americans “settled” for Biden, it’s of the utmost importance that we understand his policies.

What are Joe Biden’s policies on some of the most relevant issues?

COVID-19: All throughout his campaign, Biden made it very clear that he would take whatever means necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Biden and Harris have developed a seven point plan to manage COVID-19 and prevent further cases:
The first point in this plan is to fix Trump’s lack of testing and contact tracing to ensure that all Americans can get tested regularly, reliably, and for free. He plans on doing this by doubling the number of drive-through testing sites, investing in at-home and instant testing, setting up a Pandemic Testing Board that functions like Roosevelt’s War Production Board, and establishing a U.S. Public Health Job Corps to create jobs, conduct contact tracing, and protect those at risk.
His second point is to ensure that there is a national supply of PPE (personal protective equipment) so we do not have to depend on other countries in times of crisis. He will accomplish this by utilizing the Defense Production Act.
His third point is to provide clear, consistent, evidence-based guidance and resources to help communities navigate these tough times. In order to achieve this step, he plans on establishing a renewable fund for state and local governments to ensure that there aren’t budget shortfalls, having Congress pass an emergency package to provide schools with additional resources to adapt to the pandemic, providing a “restart package” to help small businesses reopen safely, and monitoring the spread of cases so appropriate social distancing guidelines can be implemented.
His fourth point is to develop a plan for the effective and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments; he will invest $25 billion in a vaccine manufacturing and distribution plan to ensure that the vaccine is given to every American at no cost.
His fifth point is to protect the Americans at high risk; he will accomplish this by developing a COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force to address the public health disparities and creating a Nationwide Pandemic Dashboard so Americans can track the spread.
His sixth point is to restore the recently dismantled defenses to ameliorate pandemic threats. He plans to restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, protective measures implemented during the Obama Administration and eliminated during the Trump administration, restore our relationship with the WHO (World Health Organization), re-launch and restore PREDICT, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s pathogen tracking program, and expanding the number of CDC’s (Center for Disease Control) deployed disease detectives.
Biden’s seventh and final point is to implement nationwide mask mandates by working with state and local government officials.

So far, we can see that Biden truly meant what he said as he has already developed a coronavirus task force, made of physicians and health experts to take a science-based approach of handling the pandemic, and is ready to implement his Seven Point Plan to combat the rising number of cases.

Healthcare: Biden has continuously advocated for the expansion of the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as Obamacare, and plans to implement a public option in order to insure roughly 97% of Americans. He has dubbed the public option Bidencare and it will function similarly to Medicare but will include all Americans; despite its similarities to Bidencare, Biden still firmly opposes Medicare For All.

In regards to Medicare, Biden plans to lower the eligibility age from 65 to 60 and has guaranteed that premiums and drug costs will be reduced by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with insurance companies.

Economy & Taxes: Biden promises to create millions of jobs with his economic recovery plan “Build Back Better” by addressing climate change, racial equity, and reinvesting in American manufacturing. His plan outlines a $300 billion dollar increase in government spending on U.S. produced materials, services, research and technology, changing the tax code to reward companies that invest in domestic production, taxing companies that sell their goods overseas so 10% of their profits go back to the U.S., a $400 billion dollar pledge to buy American products, raising the federal minimum wage to $15, extending loans to small businesses, rescinding the Trump administration’s tax cuts, a $10,000 of student loan forgiveness for federal loans, and more.

Climate Change: Biden recognizes the severity of climate change, and he made it clear that as president he will do whatever is necessary to reduce emissions and ameliorate the climate crisis. During his campaign, Biden said that he does not agree with the Green New Deal but has used it as a framework for his own plan to tackle climate change. Biden’s $1.7- 2 trillion dollar plan includes developing clean energy & eliminating emissions from the power sector, investing in green technology research, and boosting green manufacturing to increase jobs while helping working class union workers. His first step will be to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and then he will begin to implement his own plan. Despite all of his plans to tackle the climate crisis, Biden still has no intention of nationally banning fracking.

Race: Biden has acknowledged the severity of racism in America and believes the best way of addressing it is through economic and social programs that support BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color). One of the pillars of his “Build Back Better” economic recovery program is to create a $30 billion investment fund to provide business support for BIPOC.

Criminal Justice: In regards to criminal justice, Biden has strayed from his previous “Tough on Crime” stance and has proposed plans to reduce incarceration as a whole, to address the race, gender, and income disparities in the justice system, and to rehabilitate those who have been released from prison. However, he doesn’t support calls to defund the police, rather, he plans to reallocate some funding to social services and invest $300 million into a community policing program. He also plans to implement a $20 billion dollar program to motivate states to invest in incarceration reduction efforts, eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, decriminalise marijuana and completely remove prior cannabis convictions, and end the death penalty.

Education: In regards to education, Biden has endorsed student loan debt forgiveness, the expansion of tuition-free colleges, and universal preschool access, policies that are very popular amongst the democratic party. Biden plans on funding these programs by withdrawing the tax-cuts that were made under the Trump administration.

Foreign Policy: While Biden plans on prioritizing American national issues first, he does have a clear foreign policy stance. Biden intends to return to multilateralism and actively engage with other nations as opposed to the isolationism implemented by Trump. He would like to begin by repairing relations with U.S. allies, specifically NATO, something that was frequently threatened with funding cuts and undermined by Trump. After repairing relationships with allies, Biden plans on forming an international coalition of democracies to combat the unfair trade policies of China.

Abortion: Biden has made his stance on abortion very clear, he will protect a woman’s right to choose and will fight to keep abortion legal. He plans on passing a federal law protecting the right to choose, ensuring that even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, women will have the choice.

Immigration: In his first 100 days in office, the period indicative of presidential success, Biden plans on reversing the policies that separate families in the U.S.-Mexican Border, remove the limits on the number of people that can come to the U.S. seeking asylum, remove travel bans from nations where Muslims are the majority, and protect the DREAMers.

Biden and Harris are far from perfect, like their policies, so we must continue to make our voices heard to ensure that we are building the America we want. We have to make sure that we hold Biden and Harris accountable for their mistakes by ensuring that our government is taking whatever means necessary to achieve climate justice, racial equity, massive reforms in our justice system, and so much more. Our work is far from over but even though there is much work to be done, we can still celebrate the small victories and be grateful that we are on the road to progress.

References
BBC News. “Joe Biden: Where does he stand on key issues?” BBC News, 7 November 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-53575474.
Ember, Sydney. “Where Does Joe Biden Stand on Major Policies?” New York Times, 8 November 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/article/joe-biden-policies.html.