Joe Biden

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is a former U.S Vice President under President Barrack Obama and a former 7-term Senator from the state of Delaware.



Immigration
As a senator from Delaware, Joe Biden voted in favor of the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush. The legislation authorized and partially funded the construction of 700 miles (1,125 km) of fencing along the Mexican border, costing federal taxpayers close to $2.5 billion and resulting in the development of the human trafficking industry along the southern border.

During his run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2007, then-Senator Biden was unequivocal when asked at a debate about whether he would allow sanctuary cities to ignore federal law, “No,” he responded. However, he voted for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which among its provisions would create a path to citizenship for 12 million illegal immigrants. In June of 2019, during the first Democratic debate, former Vice President stated that he supports giving unlimited green cards to every applicant with a Ph.D. degree. Before that, Biden said he would grant them visas lasting up to seven years. He supports the naturalization of dreamers.

It is worth noting that during the eight years of the Obama-Biden administration, 2.8 million immigrants were deported, at a much faster rate than current Trump administration deportation attempts.

Abortion
As a senator from Delaware, in March of 1986, Joe Biden spoke on the matter of Abortion, telling the Catholic Diocese Newspaper that he thinks “abortion is wrong from the moment of conception”. He seemed to be offering the National Conference of Catholic Bishops moral support in pushing for limits, noting that the “most effective pro-life groups are those who keep trying to push back the frontier.”

On the floor of the Senate, Biden voted against a 1977 compromise that allowed Medicaid to fund abortions that included exceptions for victims of rape and incest in addition to concerns for the life of the mother. While the rape and incest exceptions passed in that case, he voted in 1981 to again remove them, in what was the most far-reaching ban on federal funds ever enacted by Congress. Biden also voted several times, including in 1983, to prohibit federal workers from using health insurance on abortion services, with the only exception being to save the life of the mother.

In his 2007 book “Promises to Keep: On life and politics” Biden describes his beliefs and voting record on abortion as “ middle of the road.” He wrote that he doesn’t think he has “a right to impose my view on the rest of society” and committed to protecting Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion. In a recent email to supporters, he underscored: "I refuse to impose my religious beliefs on other people". In July 2019 Biden, according to his campaign, withdrew his support for the Hyde amendment, a four-decade-old ban on using federal funds for abortion services, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman. Biden pledged that he would appoint United States Supreme Court justices who shared his beliefs in upholding Roe v. Wade.

'Healthcare'
In June 2019 Biden unveiled his plan aimed to patch the shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act. His “public option” proposal would give virtually everyone the choice of a government plan like Medicare, as an alternative to private coverage, not a substitute.

A big part of Biden's plan is the idea of expanding the ACA subsidies to reduce costs for patients and consumers — similar to what Hillary Clinton campaigned on in 2016. This would "uncap" federal help to pay for health insurance premiums, this sort of assistance is now available only to those with incomes that are 400% of the poverty level, or about $50,000 for an individual.

Furthermore, under Biden's plan, no one would be required to pay more than 8.5 percent of their income toward health insurance premiums.

One of the most controversial pieces of the proposed legislation is the creation of a government-run public option health service, that would be available to many more people than the 20 million or so who are now in the individual insurance market. According to the document put out by the campaign, this public option also would be available to those who don't like or can't afford their employer insurance, and to small businesses. It would make the 2.5 million people currently ineligible for either Medicaid or private insurance subsidies because their states have chosen not to expand Medicaid automatically enrolled in Biden's public option, at no cost to them or the states where they live. Also included automatically in the public option would be another 2 million people with low incomes who currently are eligible for ACA coverage subsidies – and who would also be eligible for expanded Medicaid. The proposition also eliminates the Hyde amendment, and would not prohibit undocumented people from purchasing plans on the health insurance exchanges, although without subsidies.

'Gun Laws'
Throughout his term in the Senate, Biden supported various gun control measures. In 2003, Biden was given an F grade by the National Rifle Association (NRA) who claimed that he was "showing an anti-gun ownership voting record". After shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas Biden called for a federal assault weapons buyback program.
 * He voted for a 1986 bill that allowed firearms to be sold by mail and limited inspections of dealers while allowing them to sell at gun shows. At the time, the NRA described the legislation as "the law that saved gun rights" in the United States.
 * In 1989, he sponsored a bill that would have banned the AR-15 and eight similar firearms.
 * He voted for the 1993 Brady Bill which established five-day waiting periods for handgun purchases and background checks.
 * In 1994 he played a central role in the debate about Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, strongly arguing in favor of banning assault-style weapons. "In case after case of murderous rampages by disturbed and violent thugs, the ability of military-style assault weapons to kill and maim not just a few but eight or 10, 14, 35 people in just minutes has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt,". Biden helped pass the bill which banned the manufacture, transfer, or possession of certain firearms, with the exception of those owned before its implementation. It expired in 2004.
 * He voted for the Closing Gun Show Loophole act of 1999 that would have required people purchasing guns at gun shows to undergo a background check and a three-day waiting period. In 2007 Biden again supported similar legislation.
 * He voted against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 which protects firearm manufacturers from lawsuits due to crimes committed with firearms they manufactured.

'Religion'
Joe Biden was born and raised Roman Catholic. In response to a student's question about how his religious faith affected his philosophy of government at the University of Pittsburgh in November 2011, Biden said:

"I find it preposterous that in 2011 we're debating whether or not a man is qualified or worthy of your vote based on whether or not his religion ... is a disqualifying provision. It is not. It is embarrassing and we should be ashamed, anyone who thinks that way".

Social Security
In contrast to his fellow 2020 opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders, Biden enthusiastically promoted, and later cast a vote in favor of the Balanced Budget Amendment which was the central part of the GOP’s “Contract With America” promise to eliminate the deficit. If adopted, it would have capped federal spending at what government brought in in revenue, providing an easy tool for those looking to cut federal programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ benefits to reduce the deficit. Biden was one of just 14 Democrats to back the measure when it reached the Senate.

More recently Biden proposed a quite different approach, when speaking at the AARP Iowa forum he said: “We should be increasing, not decreasing, Social Security,”, “It’s within our capacity to do so.”. He introduced a plan that would improve benefits for individuals in several key ways. It calls for increasing payments to individuals who have been receiving retirement benefits for at least 20 years. The idea is aimed at protecting those older individuals against having to deplete their savings. Biden’s plan would also set a minimum benefit so that all workers who put in 30 years of work would be guaranteed a benefit equal to at least 125% of the federal poverty level.

His proposition would also increase survivor benefits for widows and widowers by about 20% more per month. Surviving spouses currently receive 100% of a deceased worker’s benefit as long as they are at full retirement age or older. But many individuals take those benefits before their full retirement age, which reduces their Social Security checks. Plus, if the spouse who died was receiving reduced benefits, the survivors benefit is based on that amount, and therefore also reduced.

Biden’s proposal also calls for letting public sector workers, including teachers who are not eligible for Social Security, to begin receiving pension benefits sooner than the 10 years that many of their plans currently require.

To achieve goals stated above, Biden’s plan calls for raising taxes on the wealthy by “asking Americans with especially high wages to pay the same taxes on those earnings that middle-class families pay.”

Notably, the plan specifically rejects proposals to privatize the program or introduce means testing, whereby benefits would only be provided to individuals below a certain level of income or wealth.

'LGBT Rights'
In 1993, as a United States Senator, Biden voted in favor of 10 U.S.C. §654, a section of a broader federally mandated policy that deemed homosexuality incompatible with military life thereby banning gay Americans from serving in the United States armed forces in any capacity without exception. The law was later subsequently modified by President Clinton through the issuance of DOD Directive 1304.26 (known also as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell") which accommodated "closeted" service to the extent that a servicemember's homosexual sexual orientation was neither discovered nor disclosed. In 2010 the practice was ruled unconstitutional in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States for violation of First and Fifth Amendment rights.

In 1996, Biden voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act (1 U.S.C. §7) which prohibited the federal government from recognizing any same-sex marriage, barring individuals in such marriages from equal protection under federal law, and allowing states to do the same. In 2013, Section 3 of DOMA was ruled unconstitutional and partially struck down in United States v. Windsor. The Obama Administration did not defend the law and congratulated Mrs. Windsor on her court victory. In 2015, DOMA was ruled unconstitutional in totality in Obergefell v. Hodges.

In a May 2012 Meet the Press interview, Vice President Biden publicly reversed his previous position, stating he was "absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don't see much of a distinction beyond that."

During a keynote address to hundreds of activists at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Ohio gala on the first day of Pride Month Biden promised that passing the Equality Act “will be the first thing” he would “ask to be done”. It would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act to ban discrimination in employment, housing, jury selection and public accommodations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Wall Street Regulations
Joe Biden spent his whole career in the Senate representing Delaware, a major center of the consumer credit side of the banking industry. In the late 1990s, amid an increase in bankruptcy filings, the financial services industry began pushing for rules that would make it more difficult for consumers to seek bankruptcy protection. Among those courted by the industry was Mr. Biden, who represented the home state of several vested companies, including, at the time, the credit-card issuer MBNA Corporation. (Bank of America bought MBNA in 2006.) MBNA executives and employees contributed roughly $200,000 to Mr. Biden’s campaigns from 1989 to 2010, making the company his largest corporate donor during that time, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The bankruptcy debate went on for many years in Congress, with Mr. Biden on several occasions supporting the bill and ultimately, with 73 others, voting for the version that passed the Senate in 2005. That legislation, which Mr. Obama voted against, drew the ire of advocacy groups who saw it as anticonsumer.

At one point during the debate, Elizabeth Warren, then a Harvard professor, singled out Mr. Biden for what she saw as his anti-consumer role.

“The Senate was evenly split between the two parties, but one of the bill’s lead sponsors was Democratic powerhouse Joe Biden, and right behind him were plenty of other Democrats offering to help,” Ms. Warren wrote in her 2014 autobiography, “A Fighting Chance.” “Never mind that the country was sunk in an ugly recession and millions of families were struggling — the banking industry pressed forward and Congress obliged.”

When in office as a Vice President he supported the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, intended to protect consumers from unfair billing practices, and the Dodd-Frank Act, the 2010 financial overhaul legislation that provided new consumer safeguards and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Tax Plans
As a way to fund his healthcare plan, Joe Biden pledged to increase the top marginal income tax rate on long-term capital gains to 43.4 percent, nearly doubling the current 23.8 percent rate, for taxpayers earning more than $1 million annually, and eliminate a tax expenditure called “step-up in basis” that allows decedents to pass capital gains to heirs without tax.

'Justice System Reform'
Former vice president and 2020 presidential hopeful was a key senator working on the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, better known as the 1994 Crime Bill. Biden has taken to calling it the “1994 Biden Crime Bill,”. The bill earmarked $8.7 billion over six years for states to build more prisons. About half of that was available to states that enacted “truth-in-sentencing” laws, which curb paroles and required people convicted of violent crimes to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. .

The 1994 law also included provisions such as Violence Against Women Act, the assault weapons ban and an unusually tough federal “three-strikes” provision that required mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for those who commit a federal violent felony if they had two or more previous convictions for violent felonies or drug trafficking crimes, even if the first two were at the state level. Biden revealed in the politics of the Crime bill, bragging after it passed that “the liberal wing of the Democratic Party” was now for “60 new death penalties,” “70 enhanced penalties,” “100,000 cops,” and “125,000 new state prison cells. .” 

Some of those provisions, for example, mandatory life sentences for committing a third violent felony, were overturned when President Trump signed the First Step Act into law.

In July 2019 Biden unveiled his Criminal justice reform plan, vowing to reduce incarceration, reform policing, and shift spending from incarceration to more social support for those at risk of crime. The legislation includes many ambitious goals such as decriminalizing marijuana, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent crimes, ending the death penalty, abolishing private prisons, getting rid of cash bail, and discouraging the incarceration of children. All of it is aimed at reducing incarceration and fixing “the racial, gender, and income-based disparities in the system,” according to Biden’s campaign. It would also create a new $20 billion grant program that encourages states to reduce incarceration and crime. According to the proposition savings from less incarceration at the federal level, along with additional federal money would be directed to boosting spending on education (including universal pre-K), mental health care, addiction treatment, and other social services.

Global warming
Vice President Biden often claims that he was among the first to introduce a bill addressing climate change in the Senate, and fact-checkers generally agree. It was the Global Climate Protection Act of 1986 that was attached to a federal spending bill for the year 1987. The Reagan administration practically ignored it, but the bill did call for an EPA national policy on climate change, and annual reports to Congress.

Biden supported higher fuel efficiency standards for motor vehicles, which passed, and in 2003, modest caps on greenhouse gas emissions, which didn't. He missed a key vote in 2008 on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which was said to be the strongest global warming bill to ever make it to the Senate floor. Biden also opposed tightening fuel efficiency standards earlier in his career.

The Biden-Obama administration put a strong emphasis on combating climate change, especially in its second term, notably achieving the landmark Paris climate agreement, asserting climate action and jobs go hand in hand. It pushed through auto fuel economy standards that deeply cut emissions. It also produced regulations on coal-fired power plants, though the rule was stymied by litigation and has been replaced with a weaker rule by the Trump administration. Biden surprised some activists and pundits in June 2019 when he presented his campaign's first climate platform. It embraced the Green New Deal as a "crucial framework." His platform foresees $1.7 trillion in spending over the next 10 years and $3.3 trillion in investments by the private sector and state and local governments, a big chunk of that money would be used to build environmentally friendly infrastructure and invest in renewables.

In July, Biden released a policy agenda that aims to boost the rural economy, in part by expanding a program that will pay farmers to use farming techniques that store carbon in the soil. His plan also calls for support for economically impacted communities. He was slow to agree with activists' calls for him to swear off campaign contributions from fossil fuel interests but did sign the No Fossil Fuel Funding pledge on June 27.

Joe Biden also claims the military leaders told him that the climate crisis is one of the greatest concerns for war and disruption.

At 7-hour CNN Town Hall the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate was hit with a tough question: How can he be trusted to stand up to fossil fuel companies when he has plans to attend a fund-raiser tomorrow hosted by Andrew Goldman, a co-founder of Western LNG, a liquefied natural gas production company. Biden insisted that Goldman "is not a fossil-fuel executive," and the Biden campaign said Goldman was not currently involved in Western LNG.