PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2020 - WHERE TRUMP AND BIDEN STAND ON ISSUES
This election season has not been like any other. For the first time in history, the entire world is facing an on-going pandemic and it has led to many changes and difficult decisions that have transformed the way we live. With this in mind, President Donald Trump, the current Republican nominee, and former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, are the key figures of this presidential race. The decision on who we want as our leader for the next four years will also determine how our nation will continue to handle and overcome the pandemic.
Whether you have voted or are hesitant to make a vote, here are some key points to keep in mind as we head into November 3rd:
TRUMP:
Incumbent President Donald Trump is running with current Vice President Mike Pence. Mike Pence went to law school then did a series of radio and TV shows in the 1990s. He served in the US House of Representatives from 2001-2013, then as Indiana governor from 2013-2017, at which point he became Vice President. Donald Trump graduated with a Bachelor's of Science from UPenn and got a job at his father’s real estate company right out of college. He inherited the business, and it is now more of a licensing operation. He increased his fame through TV on shows such as The Apprentice. He is the current president and was sworn in in 2017. Economy
Pledges to create 10 million jobs in 10 months, and create one million new small businesses
Hinted at possible action on the minimum wage in July of this year and expressed openness to $15 an hour in 2019, but yet it is still unclear where he stands
Pledges to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement after winning bipartisan support
Has signed a defense bill in 2019 that included 12 weeks of paid parental leave for federal workers
Promises to provide paid parental leave for working parents and backed a bill that would allow new parents to take advance payments on future child tax credits, but he has not pushed the issue
Supports tariffs on goods from China
Does not support Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal
Supports ‘Made in America’ policies
Immigration
Supports ‘zero tolerance’ policy that can lead to family separations at the border
Supports building an additional wall on the U.S.-Mexico border
Does not support a delay on deportations
Supports the United States accepting fewer than 50,000 refugees per year
Supports a shift to a "merit-based" entry system
Supports banning sanctuary cities
Supports increasing the number of highly-skilled immigrants, but not during the pandemic
Foreign policy
Promises to put America first when it comes to foreign policy
Lukewarm when it comes to supporting NATO
Supports withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and desires peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban
Supports the Israel-United Arab Emirates peace deal
Supports moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
Does not support the Iran nuclear deal
Does not support ending assistance for the Saudi-led war in Yemen
Supports current restrictions on U.S.- Cuba relations
Supports the creation of Space Force
Supports increasing the Department of Defense budget
Coronavirus
Opposes national requirement for mask-wearing and left it to states or local governments to enact mandates
Prioritizes opening the country back up
Determines speedy development of vaccines
Climate Change
Somewhat skeptic in regards to climate change and recent warming largely driven by human activity
Supports withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement
Supports oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Wants to expand non-renewable energy
Aims to roll back further environmental protections
Does not support an active role for the federal government in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Does not support banning hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”), which is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas
Healthcare
Wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
Aims to lower drug prices by allowing imports of cheaper ones from abroad
Does not support a public health insurance option for government-financed care
Does not support Medicaid expansion nor does not support lowering the age to receive Medicaid
Education
Does not support making public colleges tuition-free
Supports federal funding to send students to private schools
Supports cross-examination of accusers of sexual assault at colleges and universities
Does not support banning charter schools
BIDEN:
Former Vice President Joe Biden is the Democratic presidential nominee running alongside Senator Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris went to law school and became a persecutor for many years. She was the local Assistant DA from 1990-2004 before becoming the DA for San Francisco in 2004-2011. Afterwards, she was the first woman Attorney General of California from 2011-2017. She began as a US Senator in 2016, which is the position she holds now. Joe Biden served on the US Senate from 1973-2009, at which point he became the Vice President under the Obama administration from 2009-2017.
Economy
Through a speedy end to the pandemic (as outlined in the “coronavirus” policy section) promises a quick economic recovery
Through his climate plan (again, see the section outlined “climate change”), millions of jobs are planned to be added in our switch to clean energy
His education plan (see “education” section) would like to create new jobs in childcare and in teaching positions for minority teachers through added funding
Increasing taxes on those earning more than $400,000 per year
Expanding child tax credit which gives parents tax credits when they have dependents
Immigration
Opposes separating children and parents at the border
Want to restore original Asylum laws by removing limitations that were put into place under the Trump administration
For example, ending the metering policy which limits the number of Asylum applications that can be accepted each day
Opposes prolonged detention; instead proposes using a case management program which would allow people to live separately from detainment centers as they await trial
Supports reversing the public charge rule which previously made people ineligible for a visa based on their use of governmental services
Opposes the construction of the wall
Supports reinstating DACA, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children
Opposes travel and refugee bans such as the “Muslim ban”
Supports protecting TPS and DED holders by not deporting them back into dangerous situations, and providing them a path to citizenship
Supports holding ICE accountable through increased transparency and changing management so they answer to the president
Supports reuniting undocumented veterans who had been deported with their families in the US
Want to make it easier to naturalize from a green card by removing roadblocks and certain fees
Supports creating a path to legalization for agricultural workers
Supports family-based immigration instead of only accepting work-based immigration
Wants to expand visa category for cities/counties to request higher levels of immigrants to boost their economies
Supports increasing number of visas for domestic violence survivors
Supports expanding U Visa system which grants visas to undocumented workers who report serious crimes against them in the workplace and cooperate with the investigation
Supports increasing the number of refugees welcome
Supports doubling the number of immigration judges, court staff, and interpreters to end backlog
Opposes for-profit detention centers
Foreign policy
Supports restoring leadership abroad by first reinforcing our democracy (here he cites all other plans as a reinforcement of democracy nationally)
Supports cooperating with Canada, Mexico, and other Central/South American countries to tackle immigration issues
Wants to organize and host a Global Summit for Democracy where the US and other invited countries will commit to fighting corruption, defending against authoritarianism through election security, and advancing human rights
Supports investing in our military forces
Supports ending the “forever wars” in Afghanistan and the Middle East by bringing majority of our troops home and ending our support for war in Yemen
Supports denuclearizing North Korea through campaigns with our allies and China
Wants to hold a Climate World Summit to go even further than the Paris Climate Accord and pressuring China into ending support for coal-based industries through economic incentive
Coronavirus
Supports instituting a national mask mandate
Supports widening our testing policy with at-home testing and an increased number of drive-through testing sites
His plan to end the virus is based on Roosevelt's War Production Board which was used during WWII, and switched industries from peacetime to wartime industries, redistributing materials and services - these industries would work towards testing, vaccine, and PPE production as needed instead
Supports using the Defense Production Act to fix PPE problem instead of having states figure out on their own what to do
Supports instituting a Covid-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities task force along with other task forces to protect those that were hardest hit
Climate Change
Climate plan is centered around rebuilding infrastructure, expanding the auto industry, improving public transportation, creating a carbon free power sector by 2035, upgrading buildings to be more climate friendly, constructing sustainable homes, putting money into new technology, plugging abandoned oil/natural gas wells, and reclaiming mines
Supports creating new jobs through all of these plans
Supports rejoining the Paris Climate Accord
Healthcare
His plan builds highly off of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
Supports allowing option to opt into a public healthcare system similar to Medicare
Supports making more people eligible by removing income cap and lowering the limit on the cost of coverage
Supports repealing laws preventing Medicare from negotiating lower prices with drug corporations; this would lower prices of drugs such as insulin
Supports giving a tax penalty on drug manufacturers who increase prices more than general inflation rate
Supports repealing Hyde Amendment (prevents federal funding going to abortions) to provide safer and easier access to abortion and other preventative care such as contraception
Supports restoring Planned Parenthood funding
Education
Supports increasing school funding to give teachers a raise
Supports increasing total number of health professionals in schools (counselors, nurses, etc.)
Supports funding improved infrastructure for public schools
Want to eliminate the funding gap between white and non-white schooling districts through redistribution of funding to increase funding to those school districts
Supports recruiting more teachers of color
Supports diversifying our schools through grants to school districts who move towards diversification programs
Supports fully funding the Disabilities Education Act which helps to fund special education in public schools
Supports creating a tuition-free two-year community college option
This article only seeks to inform you of the different nominee’s positions on the chosen topics going into the final day of the election on November 3rd. If you have not voted yet, remember that Illinois allows for same day voter registration, so don’t be afraid to go out to the polls and vote. Voting is the best way to show to the people in power what you care about, so use your vote as your voice.
*https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51070020
*https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-53828147
*https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/trump-policies-vs-biden-policies/