We Got Biden The Presidency, Now It’s His Turn

So now that Joe Biden has won the election (and yes he has) what exactly does he plan to do? We know that we wanted Biden to win simply to get Donald Trump out of office, but why was the former vice president a better option than Trump?

Joe Biden—like most presidents-elect—has compiled a laundry list of things he has promised to do for the people of America. A lot of the tasks on his list can be done through simple executive orders, and as such, he has promised to put them on his ‘Day One’ agenda, a list of all the things he is going to try and do on his first day as president. ‘Day One’ plans, like the ones he has promised, are composed by almost all candidates and presidents when they run for office because they show the voters which items are most important to the candidate. Just to clarify; these lists are supposed to be accomplished in the time between the inauguration ceremony at noon and the evening gala that the president has to attend.

Biden’s ‘Day One’ agenda includes matters like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme (DACA), the Paris Climate Agreement, rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO), and the travel restrictions on Muslim majority countries. Here is a list of the major items on the Biden-Harris agenda so far, with the ‘Day One’ items indicated:

Coronavirus:

COVID-19 - the big thought on everyone’s mind. Joe Biden’s plan to combat coronavirus includes testing, masks and “firmer national guidance”. Biden promises to set up a testing system that is free for all and he will hire 100,000 people to take charge of a national contact tracing system. The former vice president is planning on setting up at least 10 testing centres in every state. He also wants federal agents to set up resources and give the people more explicit and consistent guidance. Biden says that all governors should mandate masks to slow down the spread of the virus and one of his ‘Day One’ items is to issue an executive order requiring masks to be worn on federal property.

Jobs and money:

To address the impact of coronavirus, the president-elect has said he is willing to spend as much as is needed to extend loans to small businesses and increase direct payments to families. Additionally, he has said that we would like to add a supplementary $200 to social security payments.

Biden’s broader economic policies which he has named the “Build Back Better” campaign aim to support two demographics that support Democrats - young people and blue-collar workers. His support with raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour has made him very popular amongst the younger generations of voters. He is also pushing for a two trillion dollar investment in green energy because as he explains, boosting green manufacturing helps working-class (union) workers.

He is all for rescinding the tax cuts that Trump made during his term. Likewise, another one of his proposals is $10,000 of student loan forgiveness for federal loans. The Biden 2020 plan includes investing 300 billion dollars (from the federal government) in materials, services, research and technology. This will all be implemented in the US and so it will create more jobs. One of his ‘Day One’ items is to eradicate the previous restrictions on federal workers unions.

Race and the Justice System:

Part of his “Build Back Better” campaign includes a programme to create business support for minorities, with a thirty billion dollar investment. Contrary to some of his previous statements and beliefs, Joe Biden has proposed policies to address race, gender and income-based inequalities in the justice system, reduce incarceration, and rehabilitate released prisoners. He wants to create a twenty billion dollar programme to get states to invest in incarceration reduction efforts, eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, and end the death penalty. He also plans to decriminalise marijuana use and expunge previous cannabis convictions.

The president-elect has rejected calls to ‘defund the police’, arguing instead that resources should be used to maintain consistent standards. He has proposed that some funding should be redistributed to social services like mental health and called for a $300 million investment into community policing programmes.

The Planet and Climate Change:

For starters, Biden believes in climate change which is a good step and definitely better than Trump’s explanations. Biden has said that one of the items on his ‘Day One’ agenda is to submit a notice to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to say that the US will re-enter the Paris Climate Agreement. While he doesn’t exactly support the Green New Deal (a package regarding combating climate change and creating jobs), he has proposed a 1.7 trillion dollar federal investment in green technology research. His goal for the US is to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

The 78-year-old (happy birthday Joe) plans to reverse the rollbacks that Trump used to permit fossil fuel extraction, as part of his ‘Day One’ agenda. Especially orders that allowed oil and gas companies to rush through permitting processes for new pipelines, with simple executive orders. He may also issue some of his own executive orders to reduce extraction rates.

Foreign Policy:

Although there is a lot of damage control to be done for all of Trump’s actions regarding international affairs, Biden has said that he will be focusing on national issues first. He has promised to repair relationships with US allies, especially the NATO alliance which he has scheduled to call as part of his ‘Day One’ list. Although he has said that China should be held accountable for its unfair environment and trade practices, he has suggested an international coalition with other democracies instead of unilateral tariffs but is yet to explain the details of this plan.

Health:

One of the biggest recoveries Biden will be making is to expand Obamacare—a public health insurance arrangement passed under the Obama administration which Biden was a part of. He is going to carry out his plan to insure approximately 97% of Americans. He will also give all Americans the option to register in public health insurance (similar to Medicare) that will provide Medicaid to the elderly. He plans to lower the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 60 years. The CRFB (Committee for Responsible Federal Budget) estimates that this total plan will cost 2.25 trillion dollars over a span of 10 years. The former vice president has said that he will rejoin the WHO and it is one of the biggest tasks on his ‘Day One’ agenda.

Immigration:

In his first 100 days as president, Joe Biden promises to reverse Trump-era policies that have separated parents from their children at the US and México border. He has pledged (in his list of ‘Day One’ tasks) to initiate a task force that will focus on reuniting immigrant children separated from their families at the border. In addition to that, he will send a bill to Congress on his first day to make DACA permanent. DACA currently shields around 700,000 young adults who arrived in the US as children and grew up there but did not have any legal citizenship. Without DACA, these people could lose their ability to work or go to school and they would be eligible for deportation. In the future he also hopes to make sure that the “dreamers” (people who arrived in the US illegally as children but were allowed to stay because of DACA) are qualified for federal student aid.

Another ‘Day One’ task he has planned is to sign off on an executive order that will repeal restrictions on travel from several Muslim majority countries. Afterwards, he plans to overturn limits on the number of applications for asylum to the US—rules that Trump toughened.

Education:

Biden has backed many large parts of education policy including student debt forgiveness and expansion of tuition-free colleges. Furthermore, he has also supported universal preschool access. He says that all of these plans will be paid for with the money gained from rescinding the Trump-era tax cuts.

Another big improvement he is planning is to reinstate protections (that Trump removed) for transgender students that Obama put into place. The protections require any school that receives funding from the federal government to extend its protection to transgender students. This includes allowing them access to bathrooms and locker rooms and allowing them to participate in sports based on their gender identity. Biden has said that he will direct his education department to “vigorously enforce and investigate violations of transgender students’ civil rights” as part of his ‘Day One’ agenda.

As well as all the changes Joe Biden is planning to make, he has pledged to send a bill revoking liability protections for gun manufacturers and closing the loopholes in the background checking process, to Congress. Finally, he plans to make all members of his administration sign an “ethics” pledge which means that appointees in the executive branch are to decline gifts from lobbyists. The pledge ensures that the trend in government officials becoming lobbyists within 2 years of leaving their positions (and vice versa) ends.

All in all, Biden definitely has a lot on his plate, and all that's only before the actual date of his inauguration. Who even knows what kind of situation he could inherit in the next two months? He’s got a long way to go to win back the trust of such a divided country, but if he can deliver on his promises, he’s definitely heading in the right direction. I’m personally excited to see how Biden will lead the country for the next four years.

For sources please see this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NPl5Wk6HRXooqfAQ2d17ouVFi3fKSjkFspRkeMmtF5A/edit?usp=sharing