President of the United States of America

November 1, 2020

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (DEM)

Joe Biden was the 47th vice president of the United States under Barack Obama. He was also a Delaware Senator for 36 years as well as Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 16 years. This is his third time running for president.

Kamala Harris is the first black woman to be elected California Attorney General, district attorney of San Francisco, or to run on a major party ticket for vice president. She has served in the United States Senate for approximately two terms. 

IMMIGRATION

  • Biden and Harris plan to “prioritize the reunification of any children still separated from their families.”
  • They also want to revoke the MPP or Migrant Protection Protocols and restore past asylum laws.
  • These two intend to use more funds to purchase humanitarian resources to help asylum-seeking migrants.
  • Biden and Harris also plan on halting the construction of the border wall.
  • They plan to hold ICE (the Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) officers to higher standards. The leaders of these groups will be Senate-confirmed and answer directly to the President.
  • Another part of their plan is to “revitalize the Task Force on New Americans and boost our economy by prioritizing integration, promoting immigrant entrepreneurship, increasing access to language instruction, and promoting civil engagement.”

ENVIRONMENT

  • “Biden will make a $2 trillion accelerated investment, with a plan to deploy those resources over his first term, setting us on an irreversible course to meet the ambitious climate progress that science demands.”
  • Biden and Harris plan to promote the creation of more electrically-fueled vehicles and create 1 million new jobs in the auto industry.
  • They also want to “generate clean, American-made electricity to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. This will enable us to meet the existential threat of climate change while creating millions of jobs with a choice to join a union.”
  • Another part of their plan is to upgrade or weatherize 6 million buildings and homes, which will create 1 million jobs.
  • They also want to “create jobs in climate-smart agriculture, resilience, and conservation, including 250,000 jobs plugging abandoned oil and natural gas wells and reclaiming abandoned coal, hardrock, and uranium mines.”
  • They plan to promote a rail system.
  • Finally, they also intend to ensure infrastructure benefits all walks of life so as to help impoverished communities.

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

  • “Biden will make enactment of the Equality Act during his first 100 days as President a top legislative priority.”
  • Biden and Harris plan on reversing any discriminatory advances made by the Trump administration.
  • They want to appoint federal judges and officials who represent the LGBT+ community.
  • They intend to “reverse transgender military ban.”
  • Biden and Harris also want to fight misuse of the religious freedom laws that allow for discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community.
  • They intend to “reinstate protections for LGBTQ+ people experiencing homelessness.”
  • They want to adjust blood donation laws to focus more on specific behaviors rather than the current law, which prohibits gay men who have engaged in any kind of sex in the past year from donating.
  • “On his first day in office, Biden will reinstate the Obama-Biden guidance revoked by the Trump-Pence Administration, which will restore transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity.”
  • These two intend to inact the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act and other policies to reduce “sexual assault, harassment, and bullying,” as well as other types of unfair treatment towards LGBTQ+ students
  • Another part of their plan is to “reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking against LGBTQ+ individuals and support survivors of this violence.”
  • Biden and Harris plan to “expand access to high-quality health care for LGBTQ+ individuals.”

SUPREME COURT

  • Biden and Harris have vowed to put together a commission to discuss the court system (not ruling out “packing the court”.)

TAXES

  • Biden and Harris have vowed to raise the highest bracket tax rate from 37% to 39.6%

ABORTION

  • Biden and Harris intend on “expanding access to contraception and protect the constitutional right to an abortion.”
  • They want to codify Roe v. Wade.
  • Biden and Harris plan to reverse Trump’s change to Title X, therefore helping fund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
  • They want to rescind the Mexico City Policy.
  • Also, Biden and Harris are calling to revert changes to Title IX so that health care providers and insurance companies can no longer legally discriminate against those who partake in abortions.
  • They intend to fight state laws, often called “TRAP laws, parental notification requirements, mandatory waiting periods, and ultrasound requirements” which attempt to bar access to abortion.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

  • Biden and Harris want to “create a new $20 billion competitive grant program to spur states to shift from incarceration to prevention.”
  • They also intend on legalizing cannabis and releasing those who have been convicted due to use.
  • This team calls for the ending of criminalizing poverty; i.e., ending cash bail and stopping the jailing of people for failing to pay fines and fees.
  • On their website, they promote ensuring humane conditions in prisons and ending solitary confinement except when it protects the life of an imprisoned person.
  • They want to “set a national goal of ensuring 100% of formerly incarcerated individuals have housing upon reentry.”
  • Biden and Harris also call for the need to “expand access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment, as well as educational opportunities and job training for individuals during and after incarceration.”

HEALTHCARE

  • Biden and Harris’s healthcare plan is centered on “giving Americans a new choice, a public health insurance option like Medicare. If your insurance company isn’t doing right by you, you should have another, better choice.”
  • They intend to stand up to abuse of power by drug companies so that there won’t be monopolies on medications that make access to certain medicine difficult for impoverished people.
  • They also want to expand healthcare coverage to more middle-class and low-income Americans.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence (REP) 

Donald Trump, a graduate of the Wharton School, is the 45th and current president of the United States. He is the first president to be elected without any military or political experience. Before becoming president, Trump was an infamous businessman, TV personality, and co-author of “Trump: The Art of the Deal.”

Mike Pence is the current vice president and chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. He was the 50th governor of Indiana for four years and served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

 

(NOTE: On their website, there is no location to find information on their future policies, only a section called “Promises Kept.” Thus, I gathered most information from that section in addition to other government-run websites.)

ABORTION

  • “The Trump administration issued a rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide services like abortion, sterilization or assisted suicide, if they cite a religious or conscientious objection.”
  • This administration changed Title X to stop taxpayer dollars from supporting facilities that provide abortion.
  • They also implemented the Mexico City Policy, which is similar to the change in Title X except that it also applies to global health assistance.

IMMIGRATION

  • They are currently in the process of building a wall between Mexico and the U.S.A.
  • They aim to eliminate legal loopholes that allow illegal immigration.
  • Trump and Pence want to end both chain migration and the visa lottery program.
  • They revoked the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and the DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans) programs.
  • Also, they removed the U.S.A. from the GCM or Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
  • Trump and Pence instated the MPP, which prohibits “certain aliens attempting to enter the U.S. illegally or without documentation, including those who claim asylum” from being released into the states.

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

(NOTE: No mention of the LGBTQ+ Community can be found on the Promises Kept website. As such, I used references from the HHS.gov website.)

ENVIRONMENT

  • President Trump has signed an Executive Order to expand offshore oil and gas drilling and open more leases to develop offshore drilling.
  • Trump and Pence have promoted new pipelines and coal and fossil fuel-based projects.
  • They have also worked to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to domestic energy production.
  • Under the Trump Administration, the EPA launched the Smart Sectors Program “to partner with the private sector to achieve better environmental outcomes.” 
  • Trump removed the U.S.A. from the Paris Climate Agreement.

HEALTHCARE

  • Trump and Pence declared the opioid crisis a national emergency, allowing more funds to be dedicated to preventing misuse. Also, in 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services invested $900 million in “opioid-specific funding.”
  • They also repealed ObamaCare’s individual mandate.
  • They extended CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) for six more years.
  • The Trump Administration awarded $2.24 billion in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program grants, which provided “essential support services to improve the health quality of more than half a million people with HIV.”
  • The Trump Administration has announced “$20 billion in new funding for providers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.”

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

  • Under this administration, a new National Public Safety Partnership was announced with the intention of reducing violent crimes in cities. 
  • Under Trump, the Department of Justice has announced more than $98 million in grant funding through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program, which will fund more than 802 additional full-time law enforcement officers.
  • President Trump’s prolific judicial confirmations have created conservative majorities on 3 federal appeals courts, including the 2nd, 3rd, and 11th Circuits.
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