On November 7, 2020, many large news networks, including the Associated Press, called the 2020 presidential race for Joe Biden. After a long and painful election, Biden was ultimately victorious over Trump in several key states such as Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, causing Biden to be declared the 2020 president-elect. However, in response to these election results that favored Joe Biden, President Donald Trump filed several lawsuits in key states including Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Unfortunately for the current president, many of these lawsuits have been unsuccessful in uncovering fraud in this past election. For example, Georgia and Michigan recently finished their recounts and have certified the election results, each granting 16 electoral votes in favor of Biden. Similarly, one of Trump’s lawsuits in Pennsylvania was shut down by a federal judge who ruled that Pennsylvania can move forward with certifying its election results because Trump’s lawsuits were merely “speculative accusations unsupported by evidence”. As more judges continue to shut down Trump’s lawsuits, and as we quickly approach the December 8th “safe harbor” deadline, it is seeming more and more likely that Joe Biden will prevail as the 2020 president-elect. Even if some of Trump’s other lawsuits were to follow through, it is unlikely that they would be successful in uncovering voter fraud on a scale large enough to change the outcome of the election. As we look forward, it is important to consider how Biden’s victory will affect the future of our country. Because Biden’s plans are far too complex to explain every little detail in just one article, a series of articles including this one will be focused on summarizing Biden’s position on some of the most critical issues of our world today. This article will focus on Biden’s plans for healthcare and the economy.
Jobs, Healthcare and The Economy
Jobs
One of the greatest impacts of the coronavirus has been the reduction of jobs and the recession of the economy. Biden has released a plan to “build back better” by raising the minimum wage, supporting middle class Americans, improving equity in the workplace and investing in American-made goods. He has strongly supported the idea of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. In theory, this wage raise would help our economy recover from the disastrous impacts of COVID-19 by boosting employee morale and productivity while also spurring economic growth by increasing consumer demand. However, many conservatives and large businesses argue that increasing the minimum wage would actually hurt the economy by increasing labor costs and forcing businesses to fire more employees to account for the increased wages. We could go on and on about the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage, but it ultimately boils down to the fact that wage raises can only improve the economy if they help our employees without hurting our businesses.
Equity
Another big component of Biden’s economic plan is to create a more equitable workplace for all Americans by fighting against discrimination and harassment. For example, he plans on passing the Paycheck Fairness Act to ensure that women are paid equally for their work. He also claims that he will pass acts that ensure universal paid sick days and 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. Specifically, he plans to focus on helping small businesses and entrepreneurs recover from the pandemic by demanding more from large corporations and businesses.
Healthcare
Other parts of his plan for equity are devoted to undoing much of the Trump administration’s work by reversing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. In doing this, Biden aims to increase taxes and make healthcare more available to all people by expanding upon the Affordable Care Act, providing a public option, and lowering the cost of prescription drugs. A “public option” refers to a form of health insurance that citizens can purchase that is covered by the federal government. The main intent of a public option is to provide an affordable healthcare option for citizens who cannot afford expensive private insurance. The public option is similar to previous healthcare plans such as medicare and medicaid, which all promise reductions in premiums. However, the costs of premiums would not magically disappear, rather, the burden of healthcare costs would be paid by the government instead of the consumers. This could ultimately cause great harm to other groups such as private insurance companies, healthcare providers, stakeholders, and taxpayers.
Public Option
Although Biden claims that a public option would be optional, because he would still allow private insurance options to exist, many fear that the public option prices could fall so low relative to private options that almost all Americans would switch to a public option, putting private insurance companies out of business. This could ultimately result in a single-payer system, which means the public option system would be entirely funded by a “single payer”: the government. This shift towards a single-payer system would harm taxpayers because the federal government would inevitably raise taxes on high-earning individuals to cover the costs of these publicly funded health plans. Additionally, an expansion of the public option would hurt stakeholders such as healthcare providers and employees. Studies show that Medicare pays, on average, 59% less than private insurance does to hospitals. Similarly, an expansion of public option healthcare systems proposed by Biden would provide significantly lower reimbursement rates that would ultimately pull from the pockets of our doctors, nurses, and other essential healthcare providers.
Taxes
As mentioned above, in order to cover the cost of his plans, Biden must inevitably raise taxes. According to a study from the Tax Policy Center, Biden’s plan would increase taxes by four trillion dollars over a decade, with most of those dollars being paid by high earning individuals and companies. Biden’s tax plan calls for an overall 8% tax increase, which will affect every income group in America, especially the top 1%, whose expected tax rate will jump from 26.8% to 39.8% under Biden’s policies. In general, the top 1% refers to American households that make at least $421,926 in annual income. In short, Biden’s tax plan means that top earners in areas such as California and New York City could end up paying state and federal tax rates of over 53%.
Other Economic Plans
As briefly discussed above, one of Biden’s main priorities as president will be to provide aid for small businesses, especially those hit hard by the pandemic. He plans to allot $377 billion towards loans that will help lift small businesses out of this recession. He also plans to expand on Congress’ direct relief fund of $1200 per person to help assist working families during the pandemic. He will provide a minimum of $10,000 per person for student loan forgiveness, and increase Social Security check payments by $200 per month.
Lastly, Biden plans to invest a total of $700 billion in a “Buy American” plan that aims to strengthen the American economy by promoting the manufacturing and purchase of goods within the United States borders. His plan calls for $400 billion to increase government spending on US based goods and services, along with a $300 billion investment in new research and development of US technology. This is an expansion upon Trump’s policies for incentivising the production of goods on American soil through the enforcement of “America First” and “Buy American” policies.
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