Joe Biden and Donald Trump are two presidents with unfinished business and an itch to get it done. Their track records and plans on abortion, immigration, taxes, wars abroad \u2013 you name it \u2013 leave no doubt that the man voters choose in November will seek to shape the landscape of American life in ways wholly distinct from the other. The choices, if the winner gets his way, are sharply defined. The onward march of regulation and incentives to restrain climate change, or a slow walk if not an about-face. Higher taxes on the super-rich, or not.<\/p>\n
Abortion rights are reaffirmed, or left to states to restrict or allow as each decides. Another attempt to legislate border security and orderly entry into the country, or massive deportations. A commitment to stand with Ukraine or let go. At no time in living memory have two presidents, current and former, competed for the office. Not since Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, both Republicans, in 1912, and that didn\u2019t work out for either of them \u2013 Democrat Woodrow Wilson won that three-way race.<\/p>\n
More than a century later, voters again get to judge two presidents on their records alongside their promises for the next four years. Here\u2019s where they stand on 10 of the top issues:<\/p>\n
BIDEN:<\/strong> The president has called for Congress to send him legislation that would codify in federal law the right to an abortion, which stood for nearly 50 years before being overturned by the Supreme Court. He has also criticized statewide bans on abortion in Republican states and says he will veto any potential nationwide ban should one come to his desk. In the absence of legislation, his administration has taken narrower actions, such as proposals that would protect women who travel to obtain abortions and limit how law enforcement collects medical records.<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> The former president often brags about appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion. After dodging questions about when in pregnancy he believes the procedure should be restricted, Trump announced in April that decisions on access and cutoffs should be left to the states. He said he would not sign a national abortion ban into law. But he\u2019s declined to say whether he would try to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone. He told Time magazine in recent interviews that it should also be left up to states to determine whether to prosecute women for abortions or to monitor their pregnancies.<\/p>\n BIDEN:<\/strong> In a second term, Biden could be expected to continue his focus on implementing the climate provisions of his Inflation Reduction Act, which provided nearly $375 billion for things like financial incentives for electric cars and clean energy projects. Biden is also enlisting more than 20,000 young people in a national \u201cClimate Corps,\u201d a Peace Corps-like program to promote conservation through tasks such as weatherizing homes and repairing wetlands. Biden wants to triple the group\u2019s size this decade. Despite all this, it\u2019s unlikely that the U.S. will be on track to meet Biden\u2019s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030.<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> His mantra for one of his top priorities: \u201cDRILL, BABY, DRILL.\u201d Trump, who in the past cast climate change as a \u201choax\u201d and harbors a particular disdain for wind power, says it\u2019s his goal for the U.S. to have the cheapest energy and electricity in the world. He\u2019d increase oil drilling on public lands, offer tax breaks to oil, gas and coal producers, speed the approval of natural gas pipelines and roll back the Biden administration\u2019s aggressive efforts to get people to switch to electric cars, which he argues have a place but shouldn\u2019t be forced on consumers. He has also pledged to re-exit the Paris Climate Accords, end wind subsidies and eliminate regulations imposed and proposed by the Biden administration targeting energy-inefficient kinds of lightbulbs, stoves, dishwashers and shower heads.<\/p>\n BIDEN:<\/strong> Protecting democracy has been the raison d\u2019etre behind Biden\u2019s decision to run for reelection. In a symbolic nod to the Revolutionary War, Biden delivered his first campaign speech of 2024 near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where he spoke of George Washington\u2019s decision to step down as the leader of the Continental Army after American independence was won. During the Jan. 5 speech, Biden said this year\u2019s presidential contest is \u201call about\u201d whether U.S. democracy will survive and he regularly condemns Trump\u2019s denial that he lost the 2020 general election. Biden has called the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol a \u201cday that we nearly lost America \u2013 lost it all.\u201d<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> The former president, who famously refused to accept his loss to Biden in 2020, has not committed to accepting the results this time. \u201cIf everything\u2019s honest, I\u2019ll gladly accept the results,\u201d Trump recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. \u201cIf it\u2019s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.\u201d He has said he will pardon the Jan. 6 defendants jailed for assaulting police officers and other crimes during the attack on the Capitol. He vows to overhaul the Justice Department and FBI \u201cfrom the ground up,\u201d aggrieved by the criminal charges the department has brought against him. He also promises to deploy the National Guard to cities such as Chicago that are struggling with violent crime, and in response to protests, and has also vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to go after Biden.<\/p>\n BIDEN:<\/strong> The Biden administration is already taking steps to make it harder for any mass firings of civil servants to occur. In April, the Office of Personnel Management issued a new rule that would ban federal workers from being reclassified as political appointees or other at-will employees, which makes them easier to dismiss. That was in response to Schedule F, a 2020 executive order from Trump that reclassified tens of thousands of federal workers so they could be fired more easily.<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> The former president vows an overhaul of the federal bureaucracy, which he has long blamed for stymying his first term agenda: \u201cI will totally obliterate the deep state.\u201d He plans to reissue the Schedule F order stripping civil service protections. He\u2019d then move to fire \u201crogue bureaucrats,\u201d including those who \u201cweaponized our justice system,\u201d and the \u201cwarmongers and America-Last globalists in the Deep State, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the national security industrial complex.\u201d He\u2019s pledged to terminate the Education Department and wants to curtail the independence of regulatory agencies like the Federal Communications Commission.<\/p>\n BIDEN:<\/strong> The president continues to advocate for the comprehensive immigration bill he introduced on his first day in office, which would grant an eight-year pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the U.S. without legal status, with a faster track for young immigrants living in the country illegally who were brought here as children. That legislation went nowhere in Congress. This year, the president backed a Senate compromise that included tougher asylum standards and billions more in federal dollars to hire more border agents, immigration judges and asylum officers. That deal collapsed on Capitol Hill due to Trump\u2019s opposition. Biden is currently considering executive action on the border, particularly if the number of illegal crossings increases later this year.<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> The former president promises to mount the largest domestic deportation in U.S. history \u2013 an operation that could include detention camps and the National Guard. He\u2019d bring back policies he put in place during his first term, like the Remain in Mexico program and Title 42, which placed curbs on migrants on public health grounds. And he\u2019d revive and expand the travel ban that originally targeted citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, he pledged new \u201cideological screening\u201d for immigrants to bar \u201cdangerous lunatics, haters, bigots, and maniacs.\u201d He\u2019d also try to deport people who are in the U.S. legally but harbor \u201cjihadist sympathies.\u201d He\u2019d seek to end birthright citizenship for people born in the U.S. whose parents are both in the country illegally.<\/p>\n BIDEN:<\/strong> The war in Gaza, far more so than other national security considerations, has defined Biden\u2019s foreign policy this year, with significant political implications. He has offered full-throated support for Israel since Hamas militants launched a surprise deadly assault on Oct. 7. But as the death toll in Gaza continues to climb, Biden has faced massive backlash at home. His administration is working to broker a temporary ceasefire that would release some hostages held by Hamas, which would also allow for more humanitarian aid to enter the war-torn region. Biden also calls for a two-state solution, which would have Israel existing alongside an independent Palestinian state.<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> The former president has expressed support for Israel\u2019s efforts to \u201cdestroy\u201d Hamas but he\u2019s also been critical of some of Israel\u2019s tactics. He says the country must finish the job quickly and get back to peace. He has called for more aggressive responses to pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses and applauded police efforts to clear encampments. Trump also proposes to revoke the student visas of those who espouse antisemitic or anti-American views.<\/p>\n BIDEN:<\/strong> The president and White House officials regularly denounce discrimination and attacks against the LGBTQ community. Shortly after he took office, Biden reversed an executive order from Trump that had largely banned transgender people from military service, and his Education Department completed a rule in April that says Title IX, the 1972 law that was passed to protect women\u2019s rights, also bars discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The new rule was silent on the issue of transgender athletes.<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> The former president has pledged to keep transgender men out of women\u2019s sports and says he will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that \u201conly two genders,\u201d as determined at birth, are recognized by the United States. He promises to \u201cdefeat the toxic poison of gender ideology.\u201d As part of his crackdown on gender-affirming care, he would declare that any health care provider that participates in the \u201cchemical or physical mutilation of minor youth\u201d no longer meets federal health and safety standards and won\u2019t get federal money. He\u2019d take similarly punitive steps in schools against any teacher or school official who \u201csuggests to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body.\u201d Trump would support a national prohibition of hormonal or surgical intervention for transgender minors and bar transgendered people from military service.<\/p>\n BIDEN:<\/strong> The president has spent much of his time rebuilding alliances unraveled by Trump, particularly NATO, a critical bulwark against Russian aggression. Since the onset of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, Biden has pledged unceasing support to Kyiv and he made an unannounced visit there in February 2023 in a show of solidarity. His administration and Congress have sent tens of billions of dollars in military and other aid to Ukraine. The latest tranche of aid totaled $61 billion in weapons, ammunition and other assistance and is expected to last through this year. Continued U.S. assistance is critical, Biden says, because he argues that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not stop at invading Ukraine.<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> The former president has repeatedly taken issue with U.S. aid to Ukraine and says he will continue to \u201cfundamentally reevaluate\u201d the mission and purpose of the NATO alliance if he returns to office. He has claimed, without explanation, that he will be able to end the war before his inauguration by bringing both sides to the negotiating table. (His approach seems to hinge on Ukraine giving up at least some of its Russian-occupied territory in exchange for a cease-fire.) On NATO, he has assailed member nations for years for failing to hit agreed-upon military spending targets. Trump drew alarms this year when he said that, as president, he had warned leaders that he would not only refuse to defend nations that don\u2019t hit those targets, but \u201cwould encourage\u201d Russia \u201cto do whatever the hell they want\u201d to countries that are \u201cdelinquent.\u201d<\/p>\n BIDEN:<\/strong> This is where Biden and his protectionist tendencies \u2013 in a continued appeal to working-class voters \u2013 have some similarities with Trump. Biden is calling for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel, a move that would shield U.S. producers from cheaper imports. The current tariff rate is 7.5% for both steel and aluminum but Biden wants that to go to 25%. Biden has also said he opposes the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan\u2019s Nippon Steel, because it is \u201cvital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.\u201d<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> The former president wants a dramatic expansion of tariffs, proposing a levy of perhaps 10% on nearly all imported foreign goods. Penalties would increase if trade partners manipulate their currencies or engage in other unfair trading practices. He would also urge Congress to pass legislation giving the president authority to impose a reciprocal tariff on any country that imposes one on the U.S. Much of his trade agenda has focused on China. Trump has proposed phasing out Chinese imports of essential goods including electronics, steel and pharmaceuticals and wants to ban Chinese companies from owning U.S. infrastructure in sectors such as energy, technology and farmland. Whether higher tariffs come from a Biden administration or a Trump one, they are likely to raise prices for consumers who have already faced higher costs from inflation.<\/p>\n BIDEN:<\/strong> In his State of the Union address, Biden proposed raising the corporate tax rate to 28% and the corporate minimum tax to 21% as a matter of \u201cfundamental fairness\u201d that will bring in more money to invest in Americans. The current corporate rate is 21% and the corporate minimum, raised under the Inflation Reduction Act, is at 15% for companies making more than $1 billion a year. Biden also wants to require billionaires to pay at least 25% of their income in taxes and to restore the child tax credit that was enacted under his 2021 COVID-19 relief package, but has since expired.<\/p>\n TRUMP:<\/strong> The former president has promised to extend the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017 and that are due to sunset at the end of 2025. That package cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and roughly doubled the standard deduction and child tax credit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joe Biden and Donald Trump are two presidents with unfinished business and an itch to get it done. Their track\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":43413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[297,5131,539,2609,168,13826,13827,4640,1380,900,1418,101,4790,976,536,4641,10926,265,3043,177,3530],"class_list":["post-43412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-abortion","tag-aid-for-ukraine","tag-climate-change","tag-democracy","tag-donald-trump","tag-election-manifestos","tag-federal-government","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-gaza","tag-immigration","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-joe-biden","tag-lgbtq-rights","tag-nato","tag-palestine","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rule-of-law","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-tariffs","tag-taxes","tag-us-2024-presidential-elections"],"reading_time":"12 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}CLIMATE\/ENERGY<\/strong><\/h4>\n
DEMOCRACY\/RULE OF LAW<\/strong><\/h4>\n
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT<\/strong><\/h4>\n
IMMIGRATION<\/strong><\/h4>\n
ISRAEL\/GAZA<\/strong><\/h4>\n
LGBTQ ISSUES<\/strong><\/h4>\n
NATO\/UKRAINE<\/strong><\/h4>\n
TARIFFS\/TRADE<\/strong><\/h4>\n
TAXES<\/strong><\/h4>\n