Where Does President-Elect Biden Stand On The Issues?
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Tax Policy
There is an enormous gulf between the presidential candidates on tax policy—with trillions of dollars at stake over the next decade. President Trump is campaigning to continue his administration’s biggest legislative achievement, the 2017 tax law, which lowered taxes on businesses and individuals while increasing budget deficits. Mr. Biden proposes big tax increases on corporations and the wealthy to pay for social programs.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Immigration, Border Wall and ICE
Immigration formed a core theme of President Trump’s 2016 campaign and since taking office, he has sought to reduce nearly all forms of immigration to the U.S.
Among Mr. Trump’s changes: border-wall construction, bans on travel from a number of countries and a temporary closure of the southern border to asylum seekers for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. He also attempted to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Mr. Biden formulated his own immigration policy as a rebuttal of Mr. Trump’s terms, promising to undo nearly all of the changes the administration has made.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Foreign Policy
President Trump and Joe Biden have profound differences in key areas of U.S. foreign policy, including alliances, Saudi Arabia and Iran. But the pair hold similar views about some major goals, including limiting troop deployments to the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on China
President Trump has charted a more confrontational China policy than his Republican and Democratic predecessors pursued in the four decades since Washington and Beijing set up full diplomatic relations.
That hard line is likely to continue no matter whether Mr. Trump or Democratic challenger Joe Biden wins the presidential election.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Tech Policy
No matter who wins the Nov. 3 election, powerful technology companies are expected to face increased scrutiny.
A Trump administration would likely maintain—and possibly accelerate—the broad-scale regulatory scrutiny of technology companies that marked his first term. That effort has included allegations of anticonservative bias online, antitrust investigations of internet giants such as Google and Facebook, and actions against Chinese-owned apps such as TikTok and WeChat. Mr. Biden, the Democratic nominee, has also been critical of Big Tech’s market power and has said he would support stricter antitrust oversight and online privacy rules.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Policing, Crime and Racial Injustice
Policing, crime and racial injustice have become major themes in November’s presidential election, fueled in part by a series of killings and shootings of Black people in police custody this summer.
President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have offered different responses to those issues.
Mr. Trump has alternately presented himself as the law-and-order candidate who will crack down on crime in U.S. cities, and as a reformer, touting his bipartisan criminal-justice reform bill and unorthodox use of pardon and commutation powers. His Justice Department has urged federal prosecutors to seek the toughest sentences possible against all defendants—a reversal of an Obama-era policy that showed leniency to some lower level drug offenders—and jump-started the federal death penalty after a nearly 20-year hiatus. Mr. Trump’s administration shows no indication it would take a different approach if he is re-elected.
Mr. Biden has had to confront his record on criminal justice, particularly his role in crafting a sweeping crime bill in 1994 that critics say paved the way for mass incarceration of Black men. The candidate has since called aspects of that bill a mistake and said he would promote policies that would end mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent crimes and eliminate the disparity between crack and powder-cocaine sentences.
Mr. Biden’s campaign has focused on what it views as systemic racism in law enforcement. Attorney General William Barr and other Trump officials have acknowledged that there are some bad police officers but have said they don’t believe systemic racism exists within law enforcement.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Trade
Donald Trump’s election in 2016 led to the biggest shift in U.S. trade policy since World War II, as he piled on tariffs and eschewed alliance-building. A win by Joe Biden could reverse direction again. The former vice president and Democratic challenger says he will woo allies battered by Trump trade sanctions, rethink the use of tariffs and try to create a united front to confront China.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Job Creation, Workplace Safety and Wages
The winner of the presidency will face a U.S. labor market that is still recovering from a pandemic-induced shock in the spring that ended a decade of job growth.
Both President Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden are promising to create millions of jobs. U.S. employers through August have added back about half of the 22 million jobs lost in March and April when the pandemic shut down wide swaths of the economy, bringing the August unemployment rate to an 8.4% level that is in line with past recessions. The candidates’ strategies to achieve a full jobs recovery differ.
Mr. Trump is emphasizing deregulation and tax cuts as levers for job creation. Mr. Biden sees further fiscal stimulus by the federal government as a key driver for supporting a jobs recovery.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Climate and Energy Policy
The 2020 presidential election pits one candidate making climate change integral throughout his platform against another who dismisses its importance and pledges to keep pushing a deregulatory agenda.
Environmental policy is one of the biggest contrasts between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden. Energy companies, auto makers and unions all may see major changes if there is turnover at the White House.
Mr. Biden calls climate change an urgent crisis and has proposed the most aggressive climate agenda of any major presidential finalist ever, analysts say. He proposes to marshal vast government resources, with $2 trillion in spending and plans to make environmental policy and climate change a driving force in decisions on the economy, infrastructure, transportation, social justice, foreign relations and more.
Mr. Trump has challenged the science documenting global warming and cast Mr. Biden’s strategy as a threat to U.S. businesses. He vows to restrain the government influence Mr. Biden wants to expand. His campaign’s second-term agenda doesn’t mention climate, listing clean air and water broadly as priorities.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Mortgage Finance
Donald Trump and Joe Biden have divergent views on the federal government’s role in the $11 trillion mortgage market, with potential consequences for the price of home loans for millions of Americans. The Trump administration aims to return two giant mortgage-finance companies— Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac —to private hands over the next couple of years. A Biden administration, in contrast, would be in no hurry to release the companies.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Student Debt, College Costs
President Trump and Joe Biden disagree on how much of $1.5 trillion in federal student debt owed by 43 million Americans should be forgiven—and how to finance college going forward.
The Republican Trump administration has sought to limit opportunities for Americans to have their debt forgiven. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has said that the government must address borrowers’ needs while guarding against taxpayer waste. But the administration has improved access to data showing how much students can expect to pay in tuition and how much they are likely to earn after graduation, treating higher education as a marketplace driven by consumer choice. Students and their families would continue to pay the cost of a college education, though low-income students have been given more flexibility on the use of so-called Pell Grants.
Mr. Biden, the Democratic challenger, proposes having the government forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt owed by poor and middle-income households. He says that would help to reduce income and wealth inequality. And he says students from low and moderate-income households shouldn’t have to pay for a public college education.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Helping Small Businesses
Aid to U.S. small businesses still struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic is certain to be a priority next year no matter who wins the presidency, and President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are both highlighting the issue while emphasizing different solutions.
Mr. Trump’s efforts would likely rely on policy strategies that have been popular within his administration thus far, including the Paycheck Protection Program and tax breaks, and the recently released Platinum Plan for Black America.
Mr. Biden’s platform on small businesses calls for reforming the PPP, including strengthening oversight of the program, creating a new investment fund and broadening provisions for minority-owned businesses.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Financial Regulation
Joe Biden was vice president when Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial regulation act in 2010. The legislation continues to symbolize the policy differences between Democrats and Republicans on financial regulation. A second Trump administration would preserve efforts to ease what it sees as the law’s overly burdensome provisions, while a Biden administration is more likely to bring Wall Street under closer scrutiny.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Health Care
WASHINGTON—Most of the differences between President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on health care align on a central dispute: Mr. Trump wants to reduce the federal government’s role in Americans’ health care, while Mr. Biden wants to expand it.
Both agree that health-care costs should be reduced, but they disagree on how to address the coronavirus pandemic, health coverage, driving down prescription-drug prices and lowering insurance premiums.
Mr. Trump has backed much of a lawsuit to strike down the Affordable Care Act, which sought to set certain basic coverage thresholds nationwide while providing federal subsidies for people to pay for insurance. The president has moved to push decision-making away from Washington and back to the states. He has supported work requirements in Medicaid and backs letting states pursue new arrangements to pay for Medicaid. He also wants to let states import certain drugs from other countries such as Canada to spur competition and reduce prices.
Mr. Biden has called for the federal government to subsidize insurance for some people in states that didn’t expand Medicaid by automatically enrolling them in a federal public option that would resemble Medicare. The former vice president has said he would seek to reverse Trump administration changes that have undermined the ACA, and has proposed expanding the program by allowing people to buy into the public option. Mr. Biden has argued for allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on the Middle East
As the Nov. 3 election approaches, President Trump has been pressing more Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel. But regardless of who wins the election, the prospects for further normalization are expected to become more challenging next year. If Mr. Trump wins re-election, he may find his closeness with Riyadh insufficient to persuade Saudi King Salman to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. If Mr. Biden wins, he may discover his efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal would unsettle Israel and Arab states.
Where Trump and Biden Stand on Budget Deficits
Federal debt has climbed in recent years, and it is on a trajectory to rise further regardless of who is in the White House come January, as the economic downturn and the rising cost of Social Security and Medicare pressure government finances.
Both President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have called for more spending to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that short-term deficit increases are necessary to help stimulate the recession-stricken economy and help businesses and households.
Mr. Trump is also pushing for more tax cuts, which would further increase the deficit. Mr. Biden has called for large spending initiatives—on infrastructure, education and health care—that he says could boost long-term economic growth. The Democratic presidential nominee has said he would pay for those plans with tax increases on the wealthy, but it isn’t clear that would raise enough to offset all of the higher spending.
Each man has also promised to protect Social Security and Medicare benefits, which are projected to be the biggest drivers of deficit increases over the next 10 years as the population ages and health-care costs rise.
The upshot: Both candidates’ fiscal plans would add substantially to the total U.S. debt, according to estimates from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Executing those plans, however, would depend on cooperation from lawmakers, and it would become much harder if Congress remains divided.