* Click here to return to Joe Biden’s main profile page. Below is an overview of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign’s positions on a wide array of major issues. Low Regard for America Joe Biden and the Democratic Party view America as a nation that is systemically and permanently infested with white racism. As the 2020 Democratic […]
Below is an overview of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign’s positions on a wide array of major issues.
Low Regard for America
Joe Biden and the Democratic Party view America as a nation that is systemically and permanently infested with white racism. As the 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “Historic wrongs and abuses perpetrated against Native Americans, two and a half centuries of slavery, a hundred years of Jim Crow segregation, and a history of exclusionary immigration policies have created profound and lasting inequities … for communities of color.”
A very similar Democrat document — the “Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force Recommendations” — laments “the scourge of anti-Black racism” in the United States.
Joe Biden charges that “White America” has been too reluctant to acknowledge that “systemic racism” has “been built into every aspect of our system.”
Kamala Harris strikes a similar note: “The reality is that the life of a black person in America has never been treated as fully human… It’s no wonder people are taking to the streets [to protest]. And I support them.” Harris says she favors doing away with Columbus Day and replacing it with Indigenous People’s Day because: “we are the scene of a crime when it comes to what we did with slavery and Jim Crow and institutionalized racism in this country.”
Because Democrats have a low regard for America, they wish to transform it into something else, much as then-presidential candidate Barack Obama famously declared in 2008: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
On October 29, 2020, Joe Biden said something very similar: “Five days left [until election day]. Five days. I believe when you use your power, the power of the vote, we literally are going to change the course of this country for generations to come.”
Also during the 2020 campaign, Biden has stated that: (a) “we all have an obligation to do nothing less than change the culture in this country” because it is “a white man’s culture”; (b) “we can transform this nation … so that it goes down in history … as one of the most progressive administrations since Roosevelt”; (c) the coronavirus pandemic is an “incredible opportunity … to fundamentally transform the country”; and (d) America needs to make “revolutionary institutional changes” that “rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country.”
Wages
Biden aims to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Racial Matters
Reparations for Slavery: In 2019, Biden communications director Kate Bedingfield said that in Biden’s view, the U.S. should “gather the data necessary to have an informed conversation about reparations” payments to African Americans as compensation for the centuries of slavery and discrimination that afflicted black people in the United States.
Biden’s Ties to Al Sharpton: For more than 40 years, Al Sharpton has been a highly prominent racist, black supremacist, and Jew-hater. Notwithstanding Sharpton’s ugly history, Joe Biden calls Sharpton “a champion in the fight for civil rights.” Biden speaks to Sharpton on a regular basis, and Sharpton advised him on whom to pick as a vice presidential running mate.
Education
Charter Schools: Biden is opposed to publicly funded, independently-run charter schools, on grounds that they “sipho[n] off money for our public schools, which are already in enough [financial] trouble.” The 2020 Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force said: “Democrats … will ban for-profit private charter businesses from receiving federal funding.”
School Vouchers: The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “Democrats oppose private school vouchers and other policies that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from the public-school system.” Likewise, Biden called for the termination of funding for school voucher programs.
Universal Pre-School: Biden is in favor of making taxpayer-funded pre-school “available to every three- and four-year-old” in America. He also aims to “triple funding for Title I, the federal program funding schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families.”
Free College: Biden favors the use of taxpayer dollars to give all students an opportunity to attend two years of community college, tuition-free. The 2020 Democratic Party Platform pledges to “make public colleges and universities tuition-free for students whose families earn less than $125,000 — roughly 80 percent of the American people.” But for Democrats, it is not enough to fund the massive costs of tuition. The 2020 Democratic Party Platform also said: “We will increase federal support for services like child care on college campuses … [and] increased funding for wraparound services, including covering the cost of textbooks and fees [and] programs to address campus food insecurity.”[1]
Student Debt: To address the issue of student debt, Biden seeks to expand and modify the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, an existing federal benefit that cancels the remaining debt of borrowers who work in public-service jobs for ten years after they graduate.
Energy & Environment
Green New Deal: The Biden campaign website says: “Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face,” because “our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected.”[2] In a March 2020 presidential debate, Joe Biden told Bernie Sanders: “We both agree that we have a New Green Deal [sic] to deal with the threat that faces humanity.”
Oil & Gas Drilling: Biden vows to issue no new leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands or offshore areas.
No More Fossil Fuels or Fracking: During a July 2019 presidential primary debate, Biden was asked, “Would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?” He replied, “No, we would work it out. We would make sure it’s eliminated.” In a September 2019 campaign appearance, Biden told a questioner: “I want you to look at my eyes. I guarantee you, I guarantee you, we’re going to end fossil fuel.”
Carbon Taxes: On the premise that the carbon emissions associated with human industrial activity are a major contributor to the potentially catastrophic global warming/climate change, Biden would impose carbon taxes on the businesses and industries that produce such emissions.
Paris Climate Agreement:
The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “We will rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement … on Day One.”
Guns & Second Amendment
Rejecting the Second Amendment: Neither the 2016 nor 2020 Democratic Party Platforms include a recognition of a Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. In 2019, Joe Biden was asked, “Do you agree with the D.C. v. Heller decision in regards to protecting the individual right to bear arms that are in common use and which are utilized for lawful purposes?” He replied: “If I were on the Court, I wouldn’t have made the same ruling.”
Banning “Assault Weapons” & Instituting Gun Buyback Programs: Calling for “bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,”[3] Biden would “institute a national buyback program” for semiautomatic firearms.
In a 2019 interview, Biden had the following exchange with CNN’s Anderson Cooper regarding firearm confiscation by the government. Cooper: “So, to gun owners out there who say, well, a Biden administration means they are going to come for my guns.” Biden: “Bingo! You’re right if you have an assault weapon.”
At a November 2019 fundraiser, Biden made clear his intent to ban 9mm pistols,. saying: “Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons including pistols with 9mm bullets and can hold 10 or more rounds?”
Naming Beto O’Rourke to Lead Gun-Control Efforts: At a 2020 campaign rally in Dallas, Biden promised to name Democrat Rep. Beto O’Rourke as his point man on gun control. “You’re going to take care of the gun problem with me,” he told O’Rourke. “You’re going to be the one who leads this effort. I’m counting on you. I’m counting on you. We need you badly, the state needs you, the country needs you. You’re the best.”
O’Rourke has a long, well-documented history as an opponent of the Second Amendment. Some noteworthy quotes by O’Rourke:
Permitting Lawsuits Against Gun Manufacturers: Democrats believe that gun manufacturers should be held criminally liable if the weapons they produce and sell are subsequently used in crimes. The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “Democrats believe that gun companies should be held responsible for their products, just like any other business, and will prioritize repealing the law that shields gun manufacturers from civil liability.” Such a policy would undoubtedly cause many gun manufacturers to go out of business.
Abortion
Though Biden was staunchly pro-life in the 1970s and ’80s, in later years he became a hardline extremist for unrestricted abortion rights.
From 2001-08, the National Right to Life Committee rated Biden’s voting record on pro-life issues as very close to 0%.
In 2005, for instance, Biden voted against the so-called Mexico City Policy, first implemented in 1985 by the Reagan administration to block U.S. federal funding for overseas non-governmental organizations that provide either actual abortion procedures or ancillary services like pro-abortion counseling, referrals, and advocacy. Also during his years in the Senate, Biden voted repeatedly to require that taxpayer dollars be used to cover the costs of U.S. military service members’ abortions.
Abortion-on-Demand: During his tenure as vice president (2009-17), Biden fully supported the positions of Barack Obama, by far the most pro-abortion president in American history. At an October 2012 campaign rally, for instance, Biden articulated his view that abortion – even though it involves the life (and death) of a human being who is separate from the woman seeking the abortion — is essentially no different than any other medical procedure, from a heart transplant to a pap smear. “I got a daughter and lost a daughter,” said Biden. “I’ve got four granddaughters and Barack has two daughters. And this is to our core. Our daughters and our granddaughters are entitled to every single solitary operation, every single solitary opportunity!”
Permanently Enshrining Roe v. Wade as Law: In a 2020 statement, Biden announced his support for abortion “under any circumstance.” He stated that if the Supreme Court were ever to rule that abortion is unconstitutional, he would circumvent such a decision by passing a law permanently enshrining Roe v. Wade, the Court case that legalized abortion in the U.S. in 1973, as the law of the land: “If they [the Supreme Court] ruled it to be unconstitutional, I will send to the United States Congress, and it will pass I believe, a bill that legislates Roe v. Wade adjusted by Casey. It’s a woman’s right to do that. Period.”
Supporting Planned Parenthood: Biden is in full agreement with the 2020 Democratic Party Platform, which vows to “restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood,” America’s leading provider of abortion services.
Opposing the Hyde Amendment: Soon after the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, congressional leaders of both parties enacted the Hyde Amendment, which, starting in 1976, barred the use of public money to fund abortions. But Democrat support for the Hyde Amendment is now virtually nonexistent. The party’s official 2020 platform makes it plain: “We will repeal the Hyde Amendment, and protect and codify the right to reproductive freedom.” Biden, too, has made it clear that as president, he intends to repeal the Hyde Amendment and thereby force all taxpayers to pay for other people’s abortions with tax dollars, regardless of their moral or religious objections to doing so.
The process by which Biden’s personal stance on the Hyde Amendment evolved was exceedingly clumsy and inarticulate. Specifically, on June 5, 2019, the Biden presidential campaign stated that although Biden supported Roe v. Wade without reservation, he still backed the Hyde Amendment as he always had. But when pro-abortion groups, left-wing activists, and other Democrat presidential hopefuls – most notably Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand – criticized Biden for that statement, he suddenly reversed his position 180 degrees within 24 hours. On June 6, Biden announced that he could “no longer support” the Hyde Amendment, and that it “can’t stay” because “times have changed.”
Religious Freedom
Forcing Religious Organizations to Pay for Health Insurance That Covers Contraception, Sterilization, & Abortifacients: When the Supreme Court in July 2020 ruled that the Trump administration had the authority to exempt the Little Sisters of the Poor — an order of Catholic nuns who care for low-income elderly people – and similar organizations from Obamacare’s mandate that employers must provide their workers with health insurance plans that cover contraception/sterilization/abortifacient options, Biden said he was “disappointed” by the Court’s decision. He also vowed to renew legal action against the Little Sisters of the Poor if elected president. “If I am elected I will restore the Obama-Biden policy … providing an exemption for houses of worship and an accommodation for nonprofit organizations with religious missions.” “This accommodation,” said Biden, “will allow women at these organizations to access contraceptive coverage, not through their employer-provided plan, but instead through their insurance company or a third-party administrator.” But the Little Sisters of the Poor have pointed out that this “solution” would still violate their religious beliefs, because it would require them to provide contraception to their employees, albeit through a third party.
Mocking Religious Conservatives As “Forces of Intolerance” & “The Dregs of Society”: Biden has voiced contempt for religious people who oppose LGBTQ dogma. Speaking to the Human Rights Campaign in 2018, Biden described religious conservatives who have “tried to define family” as a mother-father-children unit, as “forces of intolerance” that “remain determined to undermine and roll back the progress you all have made.” They are “virulent people,” said Biden, “some of them the dregs of society.”
Religious Litmus Test in Order to Serve on Supreme Court: In the fall of 2020, Nikitha Rai, the Biden presidential campaign’s deputy data director for Pennsylvania, suggested that traditional religious beliefs opposing homosexuality and same-sex marriage should be regarded as sufficient cause to disqualify an individual from even being considered to serve on the Supreme Court. “I’d heavily prefer views like that not be elevated to SCOTUS [the Supreme Court of the U.S.], but unfortunately our current culture is still relatively intolerant,” Rai tweeted. “It will be a while before those types of beliefs are so taboo that they’re disqualifiers.” In short, Rai advocates the equivalent of a religious litmus test for Supreme Court nominations and confirmations – a direct violation Constitution Article VI, Clause 3, which reads in part that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
LGBTQ Radicalism: In an October 2020 interview, Biden told Philadelphia Gay News that President Trump had given “hate” a “safe harbor” by promoting what Biden described as “discrimination.” Proceeding from the premise that a traditional Christian, Jewish, or Muslim view of sexuality and gender constitutes “discrimination,” Biden said: “Donald Trump and Mike Pence have given hate against LGBTQ+ individuals safe harbor and rolled back critical protections for the LGBTQ+ community. By blocking the ability of transgender individuals to openly serve their country, denying LGBTQ+ people access to critical health care, proposing policies allowing federally funded homeless shelters to turn away transgender people and federally funded adoption agencies to reject same-sex couples, […] the Trump-Pence Administration has led a systematic effort to undo the progress President Obama and I made.”
The Equality Act & Forced Acceptance of LGBTQ Dogma Regarding Marriage, Sexuality, & Gender: In an address to the Human Rights Campaign in June 2019, Biden said, “I promise you if I’m elected president it [passage of the Equality Act] will be the first thing I ask to be done. It will send a message around the world, not just at home.” “This is our soul, dammit, this is who we have to be,” Biden expanded. “… This is our real moral obligation. Using religion or culture to discriminate against or demonize LGBTQ individuals is never justified. Not anywhere in the world.” In late October 2020, Biden again pledged that “I will make enactment of the Equality Act a top legislative priority during my first 100 days — a priority that Donald Trump opposes.” The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives had passed an Equality Act bill in 2019, but the Republican-controlled Senate did not bring it up for debate or a vote.
The Equality Act would force employers and workers to either accept and abide by leftwing dogma regarding marriage, sexuality, and gender, or lose their businesses and jobs. The most widely publicized example of what the Equality Act seeks to achieve involved Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who declined to create a custom cake for a same-sex wedding and was subsequently sued by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission for discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. As the Alliance Defending Freedom explains: “In an exchange lasting about 30 seconds, Phillips politely declined, explaining that he would gladly make them any other type of baked item they wanted, but that he could not design a cake promoting a same-sex ceremony because of his faith.” Phillips’ case eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court.
In June 2018, the Supreme Court issued a 7-2 ruling which held that although a baker is a business person who serves the general public and thus “might have his right to the free exercise of his religion limited by generally applicable laws,” the Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s complaint was objectionable because the Commission itself had exhibited hostility towards Mr. Phillips’ religious views. As the Heritage Foundation points out: “Other cases involving disagreement over the meaning of marriage feature florists, bakers, photographers, wedding venue owners, videographers, web designers, calligraphers, and public servants.”
The Equality Act would also politicize the medical profession by forcing hospitals and insurers to provide, and pay for, various gender-reassignment surgeries and therapies against any moral or medical objections they might have. Such abominations are already occurring. Catholic hospitals in California and New Jersey have been sued for refusing to perform hysterectomies on physically healthy women who said that they wished to transition themselves to male. Similarly, a Catholic hospital in Washington was sued by the ACLU for refusing to perform a double mastectomy on a sixteen-year-old girl with gender dysphoria.
The Equality Act also calls for the banning of all sex-specific sports teams and sex-specific facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms. Neither schools nor charities would be exempt from this mandate.
The Equality Act would cause grievous harm to faith-based charities and the populations they serve. Indeed, state and local laws regulating sexual-orientation and gender-identity issues have forced faith-based adoption and foster care agencies in Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, California, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia to permanently close their doors – all for the purported transgression of promoting the “discriminatory” belief that wherever possible, children should be placed in a home with both a female mother and a male father.
Religious Freedom & Biden’s Hypocrisy As a Catholic: In a December 2020 essay, Catholic League president Bill Donohue slammed leftist media outlets for their hypocrisy in portraying Joe Biden as a “devout” Catholic while giving harsh treatment to people who actually take their Catholic faith seriously. Wrote Donahue:
“CNN ran a piece December 13 noting that Joe Biden goes to church, prays, and carries a rosary. Right after the election, America, the Jesuit media outlet, commented that Biden prays and carries a rosary. Back in September, NPR observed that Biden uses ‘biblical language,’ prays, is a ‘deeply devout person of faith,’ and, of course, carries a rosary. The Washington Post … [has] noted [Biden’s] ‘devout Catholicism.’ On December 9th, two articles were published on this subject. One mentioned that he goes to church on Sunday and carries a rosary. The other was more pointed: ‘Joe Biden goes to church. Quietly. Calmly.’
“So it is settled. Joe Biden goes to church and carries a rosary. This is empirically verifiable. Clearly the media are enamored of his faith. But why are they so kind? Recall how the media recently treated another Roman Catholic, Amy Coney Barrett. They were anything but kind. Indeed, her ‘devoutness’ was a source of discontent, even rage in some quarters.
“What accounts for the disparate treatment? Biden rejects the teachings of the Catholic Church on abortion—he has become an extremist—marriage (he even officiated at a gay wedding), foster care, gender ideology, healthcare, contraception, sterilization, religious liberty, and school choice. Barrett is in unison with the Church on all of these issues….
“The moral of the story is plain: It is perfectly fine to be a Catholic public official just so long as he or she rejects the teachings of the Church on matters of public policy, even when those policies are life and death issues. In other words, it is okay for Catholics to bludgeon the Little Sisters of the Poor provided they carry a rosary.”
Health Care
Government-Run Health Care: Advocating a government-run system of “single-payer,” “universal” health care, the 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “Democrats have fought to achieve universal health care for a century.” In February 2019, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal introduced a Medicare for All plan that had 118 co-sponsors, all Democrats. In other words, more than half of all House Democrats favor the passage of single-payer healthcare legislation.
Expanding Obamacare: Biden seeks to build on, and expand, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which was signed into law by President Obama in 2010. Toward that end, Biden favors the creation of a “public option” —i.e., a government insurance agency to “compete” with private insurers. Because such an agency would not need to show a profit in order to remain in business, and because it could tax and regulate its private competitors in whatever fashion it pleased, this “public option” would soon force private insurers out of the industry.
Drug Costs: Biden wishes to link drug costs to the typically lower prices of those same medications in other countries around the world. He would establish an independent board within the Department of Health & Human Services to set prices in this manner. Moreover, Biden would try to limit drug prices through a tax penalty on manufacturers that raise their prices above the general inflation rate in Medicare and his public option plan.
The “Public Option”: Joe Biden and the Democrats favor the creation of a “public option” — i.e., a government insurance agency to “compete” with private insurers.[4]
Taxpayer-Funded Health Care for Illegal Aliens: The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “We will expand access to health care for people living and working across the United States by extending Affordable Care Act coverage to Dreamers” — i.e., illegal aliens who first came to the U.S. as minors. When a reporter asked Biden whether illegal immigrants “should be entitled to federal benefits like Medicare [and] Medicaid,” he replied: “Look, I think that anyone who is in a situation where they are in need of health care, regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented, we have an obligation to see that they are cared for.” In a June 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate, co-moderator Savannah Guthrie asked the candidates to raise their hand if their healthcare plan would cover “undocumented immigrants.” Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet, Marianne Williamson, John Hickenlooper, and Eric Swalwell all raised their hands.
Immigration & Refugee Policy
Amnesty & Citizenship for Illegals: Biden is in favor of granting citizenship to so-called “Dreamers” (illegal aliens who first came to the U.S. as minors), and to illegals affected by President Obama‘s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The latter was an executive action that allowed hundreds of thousands of illegals to gain temporary legal status, work permits, access to certain publicly funded social services, and protection from deportation.
During the October 22, 2020 presidential debate, Joe Biden said: “Within 100 days, I’m going to send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people. And all of those so-called DREAMers, those DACA kids, they’re going to be immediately certified to be able to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship. We owe them, we owe them.”
Biden has also said: “You know, 11 million people live in the shadows. I believe they’re already American citizens. These people are just waiting, waiting for a chance to contribute fully. And by that standard, 11 million undocumented aliens are already Americans, in my view.”
Border Wall: The 2020 Democratic Party Platform condemns the construction of “an unnecessary, wasteful, and ineffective wall on the southern border.” Joe Biden says: “We don’t need a wall.”
Though Democrats today are unanimously opposed to the construction of a border wall or the strengthening of border-control policies, it was not long ago that many prominent Democrats were vocal supporters of such measures:
Dreamers & DACA: The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “We will reinstate, expand, and streamline protections for Dreamers [illegal aliens who first came to the U.S. as minors] and the parents of American citizen children to keep families together in the communities they have long called home.”
Biden is in favor of granting citizenship to so-called “Dreamers” and to illegals affected by President Obama‘s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The latter was an executive action that allowed hundreds of thousands of illegals to gain temporary legal status, work permits, access to certain publicly funded social services, and protection from deportation.
In 2017, Biden denounced President Trump’s plan to rescind the DACA program: “These people are all Americans,” Biden wrote. “So let’s be clear: throwing them out is cruel. It is inhumane. And it is not America.”
Refugees: The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “We will significantly raise the annual global refugee admissions target, and work with Congress to create a minimum annual number for refugee admissions.”
Asylum Policy: Democrats seek to restore a system where asylum seekers who cross the southern U.S. border illegally, are released into the American interior — never to be seen again, in most cases. As the 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “Democrats will end Trump Administration policies that deny protected entry to asylum seekers…. And we will end prosecution of asylum seekers at the border and policies that force them to apply from ‘safe third countries,’ which are far from safe.”
Joe Biden was asked: “Should undocumented immigrants, arrested by local police, be turned over to immigration officials?” He replied, “No. Look, we are a nation of immigrants. Our future rests upon the Latino community being fully integrated…. Xenophobia is a disease.”
During an ABC News Democratic Presidential Debate on September 12, 2019, Biden said: “What I would do as president is several more things because things have changed. I would in fact, make sure that there is we immediately surge to the border all those people are seeking asylum. They deserve to be heard. That’s who we are. We are a nation that says if you want to flee and you’re fleeing oppression you should come.”
During a CNN and Univision Democratic Presidential Debate on March 15, 2020, Biden said: “All of the bad things are coming through ports of entry right now. We don’t need a wall and by the way I would immediately as president surge to the border. I would end this notion for the first time in history the people seeking asylum have to be in squalor on the other side of the river and–and desperate situation. They should be — be– come to the United States and have a judgment made as to whether or not they qualify. I would also surge to the border immigration judges to make–make decisions immediately and no one, no one would be put in jail while waiting for their hearing.”
Ending Immigration Raids: The Democratic Party Platform of 2020 says: “We … will end workplace and community raids. We will protect sensitive locations like our schools, houses of worship, health care facilities, benefits offices, and DMVs from immigration enforcement actions.”
Increasing Immigration from Muslim Countries: The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force of 2020 vows to: “Immediately terminate the Trump Administration’s discriminatory travel and immigration bans that have had disproportionate impact on Muslim and African people, and invite visa re-application for individuals from these countries.” Says Joe Biden: “Make no mistake, this anti-Muslim bias is not only morally wrong, it’s like putting up a great big recruiting banner for terrorists…. A ban is a betrayal of all our foundations of American history and American freedom, religious freedom, the first freedom.”
Welcoming Immigrants Dependent on Public Welfare Programs: Democrats condemned the Trump administration’s 2019 announcement that it would make it more difficult for people who are a “public charge” — dependent on government benefits — to apply for citizenship. The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force of 2020 vows to: “Immediately halt enforcement of and rescind the Trump administration’s new public charge regulations, which have racial underpinnings and undermine critical access to public benefits and resources.”
Greatly Increasing Legal Immigration: Joe Biden has no concern about whether or not the newcomers will be able to assimilate into American society and an American value system, before additional waves of newcomers continue to arrive. In a 2019 speech to the Asian and Latino Coalition PAC, he promised to triple the amount of legal immigration to the U.S. from the current level of roughly 1.2 million legal immigrants who are admitted every year, saying: “We could afford to take in a heartbeat another two million people.”
Support for Sanctuary Cities: In January 2017, Democrats condemned President Trump’s executive order that called for the denial of federal grants to sanctuary cities, portraying Trump’s order as a “shameful” and “divisive” measure that would “betray our nation’s values.”
Soon thereafter, 33 congressional Democrats sent a letter to President Trump, demanding that he “rescind” his “unconstitutional” executive order.
Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley introduced the “Safeguarding Sanctuary Cities Act of 2017,” which stipulated that federal financial assistance could not be denied to any state or local government for reason of its noncompliance with federal immigration authorities. Quigley’s bill drew 52 Democrats as co-sponsors.
Joe Biden likewise believes that sanctuary cities should get federal funding.
Deport No Illegal Aliens Other Than Felons: Joe Biden says that immigration agents should “only arrest for the purpose of dealing with a felony that’s committed [in the United States], and I don’t count drunk driving as a felony.” (NOTE: In fiscal year 2019, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency reported 49,106 criminal convictions for DUIs.)
“We’re not going to deport anybody who has not — in this country — committed a felony in this country,” said Biden on another occasion.
Infrastructure Spending: Biden calls for a $1.3 trillion investment in infrastructure and transportation (roads, bridges, etc.) over a ten-year period. He would pay for this by rolling back some of the 2017 GOP tax cuts, increasing taxes on the “super-wealthy and corporations,” and ending fossil fuel subsidies.
Taxes
Capital Gains Taxes: Regarding the capital gains tax rate, Biden says: “I believe … we should raise the tax back to 39.6 percent instead of [the current] 20 percent.”
Biden is in favor of taxing the capital gains of people with more than $1 million in income at the same (higher) rate as ordinary income.
Corporate Income Taxes: Biden aims to raise the U.S. corporate income tax rate to 28 percent, and to impose a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations with at least $100 million in net profits. The 2020 Democratic Party Platform also says that “corporate tax rates, which were cut sharply [from 35% to 21%] by the 2017 Republican tax cut, must be raised,” and that “estate taxes should also be raised back to the historical norm.”
Personal Income Taxes: Biden seeks to raise the top income tax rate for high earners to 39.6 percent. He would also put a 28 percent cap on the value of tax breaks for wealthy taxpayers.
Asserting that “a guiding principle across our tax agenda is that the wealthiest Americans can shoulder more of the tax burden,” Joe Biden and the Democrats pledge to “make sure the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.”[5]
Overall Tax Hikes: Condemning President Trump for enacting “irresponsible, sugar-high tax cuts,” Biden contends that it is “pure selfishness” for anyone to object to paying higher taxes that would help pay for government programs benefiting low-income minorities.
“When I’m president,” says Biden, “… we’re going to reverse those Trump tax cuts.” “Eliminating just a few of the [Trump] tax cuts” would be inadequate, he claims. “I’m going to eliminate most all of them.”
Biden’s proposed tax hikes would total $4 trillion over the next 10 years — which would make them the steepest increases in world history.
At an October 30 campaign stop in Texas, vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris said to a cheering audience: “I promise you this — as a first order of business, Joe Biden and I are about to work to get rid of that tax cut.”
Supporting the Disastrous “Community Reinvestment Act”
The Democratic Party Platform states proudly and unequivocally: “We will invest in low-income communities, urban and rural areas, and communities of color by strengthening the Community Reinvestment Act [CRA]” In light of the catastrophic ramifications which the CRA has had on America’s economy in the past, this ranks among the most monumentally significant promises the Democrats have made.
The CRA was enacted with near-unanimous Democrat support in 1977. It required banks to make special efforts to seek out and lend to minority borrowers — particularly mortgagors — of meager to modest means. The Clinton administration later transformed the CRA from an outreach effort into a strict quota system where, if a bank failed to meet its quota for loans to low-income minorities, it ran a high risk of being penalized severely. Thus, banks had no recourse other than to approve many loans to borrowers with weak credit credentials.
Subprime loans — characterized by higher interest rates and less favorable terms in order to compensate lenders for the high credit risk they were incurring — nearly tripled in number within a five-year period. Zero-down-payment loans rose nearly fivefold. Thus, the real-estate market became a proverbial house of cards. When the indebtedness from unpaid loans reached a critical mass, the ensuing financial crash produced a tidal wave of home foreclosures across the United States.
Notwithstanding the colossal disaster which the CRA inflicted on the American people, and on nonwhite minorities in particular, the Democrats now seek to reinstate it — all in the name of “racial equity.”
Criminal Justice
Alleged Racism in the System: Lamenting that “too many people are incarcerated in the United States – and too many of them are black and brown,” the Biden campaign stated that “our criminal justice system cannot be just unless we root out the racial, gender, and income-based disparities in the system.”
Joe Biden says there is “absolutely” systemic racism in law-enforcement.
Alternatives to Incarceration: Biden proposed to “create a new $20 billion competitive grant program to spur states to shift from incarceration to prevention.” This money would be given to help states, counties, and cities initiate “efforts to address some of the factors like illiteracy and child abuse that are correlated with incarceration.” The overall objective would be to “get people who should be supported with social services – instead of in our prisons – connected to the help they need.”
Death Penalty: Biden calls for the abolition of capital punishment, on grounds that it is applied unfairly and it runs the risk of taking the lives of innocent people.
The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “Democrats continue to support abolishing the death penalty.”
Cash Bail: Biden wishes to end the cash bail system because it “disproportionately affects low-income Americans — those who can’t afford to post bond.” Instead, he favors a system that would release all defendants prior to their trial, except those charged with the most serious, violent crimes.
Said the Biden campaign: “Cash bail is the modern-day debtors’ prison. The cash bail system incarcerates people who are presumed innocent. And, it disproportionately harms low-income individuals. Biden will lead a national effort to end cash bail and reform our pretrial system by putting in place, instead, a system that is fair and does not inject further discrimination or bias into the process.”
The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “Democrats support eliminating the use of cash bail and believe no one should be imprisoned merely for failing to pay fines or fees.”[6]
Drug Crimes: Biden would “end all incarceration for drug use alone and instead divert individuals to drug courts and treatment.” He has clearly stated that “nobody should be in jail for a nonviolent crime” or “for a drug problem” of any kind.
Asserting that “no one should be in prison solely because they use drugs,” the 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “Democrats will decriminalize marijuana use…. All past criminal convictions for cannabis use should be automatically expunged.”
Cocaine Sentencing Disparities: Biden calls for the termination of all sentencing disparities for crimes involving crack or powder cocaine. For a detailed explanation of this, see Footnote #10, below.[7]
Mandatory Minimum Sentences: Biden would end mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses — sentences which were significantly expanded at the federal level in 1986.
Private Prisons: Biden aims to eliminate all private prisons, and to have only government-run prisons, so as to “stop corporations from profiteering off of incarceration.”
Decriminalizing Marijuana: Biden favors the decriminalization of marijuana at the federal level, and the automatic expungement of all past convictions for marijuana possession.
Police Misconduct: Biden would expand the power of the U.S. Justice Department “to address systemic misconduct in police departments and prosecutors’ offices.”
Housing Assistance for Ex-Convicts: Citing “a national goal of ensuring 100% of formerly incarcerated individuals have housing upon reentry” into society, Biden pledged that he would direct the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to “only contract with entities that are open to housing individuals looking for a second chance.”
Protecting Deportable Criminal Aliens: Democrats seek to make it more difficult to deport criminals who are in the U.S. illegally. In December 2019, Democratic Rep. Jesús García introduced the New Way Forward Act, which was subsequently co-sponsored by 44 additional House Democrats. This bill changed an existing law which had made it permissible to deport illegal aliens who committed felonies that were punishable by at least one year in prison. The new legislation said that no illegal alien could be deported unless he had committed a crime punishable by at least five full years in prison. The Daily Wire reports that the legislation also called for “the widespread return” — at taxpayer expense — “of criminal illegal aliens who have been previously deported from the country … since April 1996 — if they would have otherwise been considered undeportable under the terms of this [2019] bill.” These would include people deported for their involvement in crimes like auto theft, gun offenses, drug trafficking, child abuse, rape, and manslaughter.
Defunding the Police: In the aftermath of the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd, a movement arose calling for the defunding of police forces in cities across the United States. At least 13 Democrat-governed cities voted to defund their police departments to varying degrees. For example, annual police budgets were cut by $150 million in Los Angeles, $150 million in Austin, $120 million in San Francisco, and $1 billion in New York.
Democrats’ Plan to Eliminate the Suburbs
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing: The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says: “Democrats will vigorously enforce the Fair Housing Act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing [AFFH] rule, and the disparate impact standard, and hold lenders accountable for discriminatory practices.”
Stanley Kurtz, a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, has provided the best and clearest explanation of AFFH and its radical objective, which is to empower cities “to annex their surrounding suburbs.” When President Obama and Joe Biden first began to implement the policy in 2015, Kurtz wrote:
“AFFH obligates any local jurisdiction that receives HUD funding to conduct a detailed analysis of its housing occupancy by race [and] ethnicity … Grantees must … account for any imbalance in living patterns…. Localities must then develop a plan to remedy these imbalances, subject to approval by HUD….
“[T]hose suburbs could be obligated to nullify their zoning ordinances and build high-density, low-income housing at their own expense. [They] would have to direct advertising to potential minority occupants in the [neighboring urban] region…. Even with no allegation or evidence of intentional discrimination, the mere existence of a demographic imbalance in the region as a whole must be remedied by a given suburb. Suburbs will literally be forced to import population from elsewhere, at their own expense and in violation of their own laws…. In effect, they will become more like the cities their residents chose to leave in the first place.”
This policy is enormously significant from a political standpoint, because it will tend to shift people who are disproportionately Democrats from the cities to the suburbs, thereby increasing the number of majority-Democrat suburbs and Congressional Districts.
The AFFH rule was mostly gutted by the Trump administration soon after Trump took office in 2017. In July 2020, the president officially repealed what was left of the AFFH. As Trump tweeted at the time: “I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule.” Joe Biden and the Democrats, however, would reinstitute it.
Iran Nuclear Deal
Biden & Democrats Support the Deal: On July 14, 2015, the Obama-Biden administration — along with the leaders of Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany — together finalized a nuclear agreement with Iran. Its official name was the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The key elements of the deal were the following:
Joe Biden took on the role of being the Obama administration’s leading public promoter of the Iran deal. He casually dismissed the concerns of critics who warned that the sunset clauses for key parts of the agreement would “pave Iran’s path to a bomb.” Those people, Biden said, simply “don’t get it, they’re wrong.”
Similarly, the 2016 Democratic Party Platform stated: “We support the nuclear agreement with Iran because, as it is vigorously enforced and implemented, it verifiably cuts off all of Iran’s pathways to a bomb without resorting to war.”
Biden & Democrats Oppose Trump’s Withdrawal from the Deal: In response to President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Deal in 2018, Joe Biden characterized Trump’s move as “a self-inflicted disaster” that would make “military conflict” and “another war in the Middle East” much “more likely.” Biden has called on Trump to rejoin the Iran agreement.
The Democratic Party’s 2020 Platform states: “The Trump Administration’s unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA isolated us from our allies and opened the door for Iran to resume its march toward a nuclear weapons capacity that the JCPOA had stopped. That’s why returning to mutual compliance with the agreement is so urgent.”
Opposing the Trump “Muslim Ban”
Virtually all Americans have heard elected Democrats and the media condemn President Trump’s infamous “Muslim ban.” In January 2020, Joe Biden characterized that “ban” as an ugly expression of “anti-Muslim bias” that was not just “morally wrong,” but also constituted “a betrayal of all our foundations of American history and American freedom, religious freedom.” Six months later, Biden thundered: “Muslim communities were the first to feel Donald Trump’s assault on Black and brown communities in this country with his vile Muslim ban.”
The term “Muslim ban,” as employed by Biden and fellow Democrats, refers to the fact that President Trump, professing a desire “to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America,” issued a 2017 executive order calling for a temporary suspension of most travel and refugee admissions to the U.S. from seven nations that were hotbeds of Islamic terrorism and/or civil war: Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Syria. The order also mandated the implementation of an “extreme vetting” process for any and all immigrants and visitors to the U.S.
And how did Trump arrive at his list of targeted nations? Was the list merely a manifestation of what Joe Biden has characterized as Trump’s innate propensity to “fa[n] the flames of hate in this country” and thereby ignite “an unconscionable rise in Islamophobia”?
Not at all. In fact, Trump selected precisely the same seven countries that had been named in the Visa Waiver Program Improvement & Terrorist Travel Prevention Act, which passed easily through Congress and was signed into law by President Obama in December 2015. In January 2020, Trump altered and expanded the list so as to exclude certain nationals from thirteen countries, Muslim and non-Muslim alike: Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, and Venezuela.
Supreme Court
Packing the Court: During an October 2018 public forum, Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that if Democrats could gain control of Congress and the White House, they should “pack the Supreme Court of the United States of America.” “Packing” the Court would entail increasing the number of Justices — from 9 to perhaps 13 or 15 — with all the additions being activists who could be counted upon to rule in favor of Democrat agenda items. The issue gained additional traction in October 2020, when Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett for a seat on the Supreme Court.
Joe Biden repeatedly refused to give his opinion on Court-packing: “You’ll know my opinion on Court-packing when the election is over,” he told reporters in early October 2020.
In September 2020, a journalist asked Biden: “Have you ruled out expanding the Supreme Court, as president, under any circumstances whatsoever?” Biden replied: “[W]hat I’m not going to do is play the Trump game, which is a good game he plays. Take your eye off the issue before us. If I were to say yes or no to that, that becomes a big issue. That’s the headline here. I am focused on one thing right now. And I really mean it. I’m focused on making sure the American people understand that they’re being cut out of this process they’re entitled to be part of, and the cut-out is designed in order to take away the ACA [Affordable Care Act] and your health care in the midst of a pandemic. That’s the focus. That’s what it’s on. And that’s the deal.” Biden then ended the questioning.
In October 2020, a reporter asked Biden, “don’t the voters deserve to know [your position on Court-packing]?” Biden answered: “No, they don’t.”
During an interview on MSNBC, Senator Kamala Harris stated that she supported Biden’s position “1,000 percent” in refusing to say whether he supported expanding the Supreme Court. Said Harris: “Joe’s been very clear that he is going to pay attention to the fact — and I’m with him on this 1,000 percent — pay attention to the fact that right now … people are voting. They’re voting…. People will be voting up until Election Day, and they have a right, in an election, to elect their next president, who then will make the decision about who will be the nominee.”
But in 2019, Harris had said the following about the possibility of packing the Court: “We are on the verge of a crisis of confidence in the Supreme Court. We have to take this challenge head on, and everything is on the table to do that.”
The Coronavirus Crisis
Condemning President Trump’s Response to the Crisis: According to the official Democratic Party Platform of 2020: “President Trump’s abject failure to respond forcefully and capably to the COVID-19 pandemic — his failure to lead — makes him responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.” “If the president had done his job … from the beginning,” says Joe Biden, “all the people would still be alive.” In the 2020 vice presidential debate, Kamala Harris characterized Trump’s response to coronavirus as “the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.”
The Facts About Trump’s Response: Contrary to the foregoing remarks, President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic stands as one of the most impressive demonstrations of political leadership in living memory. Let us examine the facts.
As early as September of 2019, Chinese medical authorities first noticed a new, unfamiliar type of coronavirus in a number of patients in the city of Wuhan. But those authorities kept this discovery a secret for more than three months, during which time they continued to discover new cases of the virus on a regular basis. A University of Southampton study estimates that the number of coronavirus cases worldwide could have been reduced by 95%, had China taken steps to contain the virus, and to alert the rest of the world about it, just three weeks sooner.
On January 21, 2020, the U.S. confirmed its first known case of coronavirus in a young man who had recently traveled to Wuhan.
Eight days later, President Trump created a White House Coronavirus Task Force to coordinate the federal government’s response to the virus outbreak and to keep the American people as informed about it as possible.
At that time, congressional Democrats were giving precisely ZERO attention to the coronavirus threat. They had not held even a single hearing — for even a single moment — about the matter. Instead, they had spent the preceding four months entirely obsessed with one agenda item: impeaching President Trump and trying to remove him from office. The Senate impeachment trial, which had commenced on January 21, was still in high gear. Coronavirus was, quite literally, the last thing on any of their minds.
On January 31, President Trump formally declared coronavirus to be a public health emergency and became the first national leader in the world to implement a ban on travel from China to the United States. There had not yet been a single known American death from the virus.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, a lead member of the Coronavirus Task Force, later noted that “the very timely decision on the part of the president to shut off travel from China” had “absolutely” gone “a long way” toward limiting the number of coronavirus infections in the U.S. “We did it early,” said Fauci, adding: “When the infection burden shifted from China to Europe, we did the same thing. We shut off travel from Europe, which again was another safeguard to prevent influx from without, in.” Moreover, Fauci stated that the Trump administration’s “coordinated response” to the crisis had been “impressive.” “I can’t imagine that, under any circumstances, anybody could be doing more,” said the doctor. Fauci also made it clear, in March 2020, that Trump “has never overruled me” vis-à-vis following the science, rather than political concerns, in combating the virus.
Biden Accuses Trump of “Hysteria” and Xenophobia”: On February 1 — the day after Trump’s announcement of the China travel ban — Joe Biden depicted the president as an anti-Asian racist: “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering,” he said.
Noting that “none of these proposals has anything at all to do with climate change,” Heartland Institute president Tim Huelskamp describes the Green New Deal as “the most radical socialist proposal in modern congressional history.”
In a Washington Post interview in July 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s chief-of-staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, candidly acknowledged that the Green New Deal had not been devised to protect the environment, but rather to implement socialism. “The interesting thing about the Green New Deal,” he said, “is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all. Do you guys [reporters] think of it as a climate thing? Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
While Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Green New Deal in the U.S. House, Democrat Senator Ed Markey introduced it in the Senate. By March 14, 2019, eleven U.S. Senators and ninety U.S. House Members — all Democrats (except “Independent” Bernie Sanders) — had officially signed on as co-sponsors of the Green New Deal. Among those 101 individuals were 2020 presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, and Bernie Sanders. Five additional presidential hopefuls — Jay Inslee, Andrew Yang, Julian Castro, Peter Buttigieg, and Beto O’Rourke — had likewise spoken in favor of the Resolution.