Biden’s Plan
by Isabella Zollner
Biden and Harris’ victory was possibly the biggest win for 2020. And between Trump’s impeachment, groups so lazy they refused to even wear a mask during a pandemic, an embarrassing fail of a coup from our president, and everything else 2020 has thrown at us — we deserved it. And now there is non-stop talk of what Biden has promised to do during his first 100 days. Biden and Harris were interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper shortly after their win was declared to talk about their first 100 days. Biden outlined his plan for COVID-19, the environment, the economy, immigration, and gun safety.
Biden’s COVID-19 plan seems to be the shortest of any of his timelines and relies heavily on vaccination. Essentially, Biden plans on creating a nationwide mask mandate starting on inauguration day and will last 100 days. He also plans on distributing the COVID-19 vaccine as fast as possible, although he hasn’t explained the details of his plan. Admittedly, handling the coronavirus pandemic will be even more difficult for Biden considering Trump’s refusal to acknowledge Biden’s victory. For instance, President-Elect Biden wasn’t invited to the White House’s vaccine summit on December 8th. Not only does this exclusion of the next President break centuries of tradition, it is dangerous. Biden has already appointed his health team to begin a stronger federal influence in the fight against COVID-19. The members of his team have also explained that they intend to use science and ensure the distribution of the vaccine is done in an equitable manner.
As for the environment, the first thing Biden has planned is to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. He announced this after the United States formally left the Paris Climate Accord on November 4, 2020 — a little over three years after Trump announced the United States would no longer participate. Biden plans for the United States to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, but to also become a leading country in the effort to address climate change. Biden wants the United States to be a leader in international agreements and to be the home of a Climate World Summit. He has also promised to create a 100% clean energy economy with net-zero emissions by 2050. This is an ambitious goal, considering Biden may not be President after 2025. You can read more about Biden’s climate plan and steps to reach his goals here.
Biden’s plan for the economy seems to be very union-centric. But, it’s clear that Biden’s first and foremost concern is to deal with the pandemic:
“We can’t solve the jobs crisis until we solve the public health crisis. Trump may have forgotten about COVID, but COVID hasn’t forgotten about us.” (joebiden.com).
Biden seems to have his priorities in order when it comes to dealing with our impending economic crisis. Perhaps the biggest failure of recent in our government is Trump’s refusal to commit to stopping the pandemic. He continues vaccine summits, says masks are a good…ish thing, and does any number of performative acts. But when it comes down to the hard work and sacrifices that must be made to end our pandemic Trump is too much of a lazy coward to make the jump. He would rather try to patch up our economy but it continues to flounder because of his own refusal to stop the problem at the source, COVID-19. Biden’s comprehensive plan to deal with our economy can be found here.
Biden has an aggressive plan to deal with Trump’s mess of an immigration system. Essentially, he plans to undo the various ludicrous and cruel laws Trump created regarding immigration. He also wants to re-assert America as a safe haven for immigrants and refugees. Even during just the first 100 days, Biden has 16 goals that will help to fix our immigration system. Those goals essentially all fit into three categories. One, undo the damage of the Trump administration. Biden will stop the funding of the wall on our southern border, end prolonged detention, and rescind the “Muslim-bans” among other policies Trump put into place. Two, get the chaos of our southern border under control. Some of Biden’s main goals in managing the border include flooding the border with resources and reforming the process that reveiws potential immigrants. Three, Biden wants to help countries that are known to have a lot of emigrants. He hopes to meet with leaders from the Northern Triangle to help them reduce violence and create opportunities in order to make their countries better places to live. In turn, this would reduce immigration to America and help resolve some of our conflict between conservatives and liberals.
Biden has also declared that he will be working aggressively against gun violence — the opposite of the Trump Administration. Our federal government has been breeding conflict for the past four years, conflict which led to some of the highest levels of gun violence in any country in the world. In fact, in 2016, America had the second highest level of gun violence deaths in the United States. Biden has promised to reduce, and in some cases ban, the sale and ownership of assault rifles, such as those commonly used in school shootings. He will also regulate the sale of all firearms with much more intensive background checks that will close several loopholes. You can read more about Biden’s plans for gun violence prevention here.
Overall, Biden has a lot planned for himself, his administration, and the United States during the first 100 days. As of right now it seems like he will be using executive orders quite a bit if he hopes to get all this done in just 100 days. But, that isn’t to say that it’s impossible. Especially if we manage to turn the Senate blue, which I wrote about here. Even if we do not, it is incredibly refreshing to have a president with any sort of progressive goals in mind.
About the Author:
After being subjected to homophobic harassment in the classroom, Isabella decided to try and use her writing to encourage others to stand up for each other and themselves. Isabella is a high school student in Lafayette, IN.
