Candidates for the 2020 Presidential election
February 26, 2020
Democratic Candidates:
Joseph Biden Jr.
Joe Biden registered as an independent in 1968 but changed to the Democratic party when he ran for and won the New Castle County Council. Biden had a long political career before accepting President Obama’s invitation to run on his ticket in the 2008 Presidential elections. Being Biden’s third bid for the Presidential candidacy, his views have more or less stayed the same, endorsing raising the minimum wage, advocating for climate action, and banning assault weapons.
Healthcare
Biden opposes Medicare for All. Instead, he prefers to allow people to choose between keeping their private insurance or going to a public healthcare option. He wants to patch up shortcomings in the Affordable Care Act AKA Obamacare, which will help stabilize the insurance market exchange and lower the eligibility age to 55 for Medicare. Biden plans to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health to continue his fight to find a cure for cancer.
Education
Biden wants to make two years of community college or trading school for free by extending the public school system from 12 to 14 years. The funding for free college will come from closing a single tax loophole. He wants to fix and simplify the debt-relief programs by lowering existing student-loan borrowers’ monthly payments by reducing the interest rate on federal loans. Biden wants to triple Title 1 funding and require districts to give educators more competitive salaries.
Taxes
Biden wants to increase the capital gains tax rate. He wants to raise corporate taxes from 21 to 28%. He wants to impose a 15% minimum tax on corporations with at least $100 million in net profits so they can’t avoid paying taxes. Biden wants to increase tax rates by 39.6% to the top-earning bracket.
Environment
Biden supports the development of new nuclear technology in efforts to fight climate change. The new nuclear reactor will produce 50 to 100 megawatts instead of 1,000 megawatts. He wants to end new oil and gas leases on federal land and end offshore drilling. He wants to reduce carbon emissions by returning much of the proceeds through regular dividend payments to offset higher energy costs.
Immigration
Biden wants to give citizenships to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals AKA “DACA children” and others covered by the program. He wants to leave the statute in place for illegal entry and wants to build a fence along the Mexican border.
Michael Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg is the eighth richest person in the world with a net worth of $65.2 billion. He was elected as 108th New York City mayor, holding office for three consecutive terms. Bloomberg is well-known for his social entrepreneurship, for his support for gun control, public health initiatives and environmental protections.
Healthcare
Bloomberg opposes Medicare for All. Instead, he prefers to allow people to choose between keeping their private insurance or going to a public healthcare option. He wants to improve the Affordable Care Act by adding the option of public healthcare. Bloomberg wants to allow importations of medicines sold overseas at a lower cost. He would limit drugs to just one patent to prevent manufactures from leveraging the system to artificially extend monopoly protections on their products.
Education
Bloomberg wants to make two years of college free and debt-free for the lowest-income students. He wants to fix the debt-relief program by lowering existing student-loan borrowers’ monthly payments by reducing federal loans. Bloomberg promotes charter schools.
Taxes
Bloomberg wants to increase the capital gains tax rate. He wants to raise corporate taxes from 21 to 28%. He wants to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit by examining the feasibility of expanding the benefit to cover family caregiving and other forms of unpaid or ineligible employment. Bloomberg wants to create special taxes based on wealth. He proposed that a 5% additional tax on those making more than $5 million a year. He also wants to create a 0.1% tax on all Wall Street financial transactions.
Environment
Bloomberg is not in favor of the Green New Deal but vows to achieve 100% clean energy by 2050. His climate plan also focuses on closing all 251 remaining coal plants in the U.S. along with supporting a carbon tax.
Immigration
Bloomberg believes that improving the immigration system is the most important step to a better economy. He opposes building a wall on the Mexican border and believes that shutting out immigrants is national suicide. Bloomberg supports the immigration reform that secures the rights of illegal immigrants.
Pete Buttigieg
If elected, Pete Buttigieg will be the youngest and first openly gay President. Buttigieg has described himself as progressive and a supporter of democratic capitalism. Starting his political career in 2002 by interning for Democrat Jill Thompson during her congressional bid, Buttigieg was elected as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana in 2012. He is a strong supporter of lower drug prices, the DACA program, a carbon tax, and withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Healthcare
Buttigieg supports pro-choice and the importation and patent breaking of medicines. Unlike his Democratic counterparts, Buttigieg opposes Medicare for All but rather supports Medicare for All Who Want it and believes in rethinking the Affordable Care Act/coverage expansion. The Medicare for All Who Want it policy will allow American’s to choose if they would like government-funded healthcare. Under a Buttigieg Presidency, out-of-pocket expenses on Medicare will be capped, and he will put an end to surprise medical billing.
Education
Buttigieg is against for-profit charter schools, doesn’t believe students should have to take on debt and would cancel some student debt, and supports a pay increase for teachers. Buttigieg will support loan forgiveness for households earning less than $200,000 and plans to make tuition more affordable while giving low and middle-income students free college.
Taxes
He will reverse the 2017 corporate cut, expand the earned income tax credit, and supports tax increases on the wealthy. As President, Buttigieg will end the cap on state and local tax deductions eliminating the cap for households that earn less than $400,000. He also proposes giving a $2,000 child tax credit, and an additional $1,000 credit for households with a child under 6-years-old for families earning less than $400,000.
Environment
He supports nuclear power and reducing carbon emissions and wants to end new oil and gas leases on federal land and end offshore drilling. Buttigieg’s climate plan involves creating a Climate Corps service program which will focus on helping communities become more sustainable, and has stated that he would ban all new fossil fuel development on federal lands.
Immigration
Buttigieg supports citizenship for Dreamers and wants to change illegal border crossing from being a crime to being a civil offense. He has pledged to compensate immigrant children separated from their families by fast-tracking their path to citizenship and will end the three and ten-year bars to re-entering the United States.
Amy Klobuchar
The New York Times and The New Yorker named Amy Klobuchar as one of the women most likely to become the first female president. Klobuchar began her political career in 1994 when she ran for the Hennepin County attorney. Although she didn’t win, she was later elected in 1998.
Healthcare
Klobuchar supports the pro-choice movement with limitations, “there are limits there in the third trimester that are very important – about – except for the health of the woman.” She opposes Medicare for All but would expand coverage and has a strong focus on ensuring rural communities have access to adequate healthcare.
Education
She supports charter schools, pay increase for teachers, and wants to expand or fix existing debt-relief programs. Klobuchar is not in support of the four-year college for all, but supports free attendance at community colleges and is focused on making higher education more affordable.
Taxes
Klobuchar will raise corporate taxes but plans on keeping them lower than before 2017 and will expand the earned income tax credit. Along with her competitors, Klobuchar would tax capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income. She plans on requiring people who earn more than $1 million to pay at least a 30% minimum tax rate.
Environment
She promises that within her first 100 days as President she will restore the Clean Power Plan to reduce power plant emissions and recommit the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement. She does not support banning fracking, but would like to regulate it “better.”
Immigration
She will support additional wall funding as a part of a broader bill that will provide a path for undocumented immigrants to gain citizenship. She also backs citizenship for Dreamers, and the same path will be opened to those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders is a self-proclaimed democratic socialist. At 30, Sanders’s political career started in 1971 when he became a member of the Liberty Union Party. The now 78-year-old candidate is considered the “woke” grandpa of the political world and has gained traction among young people through free education, the Green New Deal, Medicare for all, and taxing the rich.
Healthcare
Sanders believes “healthcare is a human right and should be guaranteed to every American.” He wishes to make the cut-off date for abortions set at 36 weeks. From dental services to pre-existing conditions, Sanders has made a big push for Medicare for all. He would like to lower the costs of medications by allowing the importation of medicines from other countries and break the patent requirement for brands of drugs to make cheaper generics available quicker. His ‘Medicare For All’ plan will be a progression over four years with the goal of an increase in access and choice, increase in quality of care, reduction of prescription drug costs, and eliminate out-of-pocket expenses. To pay for this plan he proposes to create the American Health Security Trust Fund which will be financed by different tax revenues, credits, and subsidies.
Taxes
Sanders would like to increase the capital gains tax rate, eliminate tax breaks for offshore accounts, create a special tax for the “1%” (i.e. billionaires) and create taxes on financial trades. Sanders will create a tax that only applies to the wealthiest 180,000 households in America. For married couples, the wealth tax will look at the net worth of these couples and will look like: 1% for above $32 million, 2% from $50 to $250 million, 3% from $250 to $500 million, 4% from $500 million to $1 billion, 5% from $1 to $2.5 billion, 6% from $2.5 to $5 billion, 7% from $5 to $10 billion, and 8% on wealth over $10 billion. The brackets will be halved for singles.
Immigration
Sanders wants to provide a path to citizenship for all Dreamers, repeal the statute on illegal entry into the United States and will not support building the wall on the Mexico/United States border.
Environment
He supports closing down nuclear power reactors, will ban fracking everywhere, will impose government regulations to reduce carbon emissions, and backs the Green New Deal. If elected, Sanders will commit to transforming the U.S. energy system to 100% renewable energy by at least 2030 and declare a climate emergency to begin “fixing the planet.”
Education
Sanders will restrict charter school growth, promote free college education, and give teachers pay increases. Sanders plans on setting a starting salary for all teachers at $60,000 and will provide year-round, free universal school meals from locally sourced food. On the higher-education front, Sanders’s plan is to pass the College for All Act which will eliminate tuition and fees for four-year public colleges and universities, tribal colleges, community colleges, trade schools, and apprenticeship programs as well as cancel the $1.6 trillion outstanding student debt for borrowers.
Tom Steyer
Tom Steyer is a hedge fund manager and philanthropist. He is the founder and former co-senior-managing-partner of Farallon Capital and co-founder of Onecalifornia Bank. In 2010, Steyer and his wife signed The Giving Pledge to donate half of their fortune to charity during their lifetime.
Healthcare
Steyer opposes Medicare for All and wants to create universal health care coverage. He wants the federal government to negotiate payment rates for providers and hospitals. Medical providers would have to participate in the public option or lose their contracts with Medicare or Medicaid. Anyone could enroll in the program, including those with commercial coverage and those who are uninsured. Steyer supports abortion rights.
Education
Steyer thinks the $1.5 trillion dollars owed in student debt is “unacceptable,” and as President, he will increase teacher’s pay using federal subsidies. In regards to Title IX, Steyer opposes allowing college students accused of sexual assault to cross-examine their accusers.
Taxes
Steyer has released his tax returns to the public to show his “charitable giving, political activities, and paid taxes. He supports the wealth tax and has proposed that in 10-years time his tax policies will have gained 1.7 trillion dollars in tax revenue.
Immigration
Steyer wants citizenship for dreamers and executive actions that could allow them to obtain legal status. He wants to repeal the statute because it allows for the harsh treatment of migrant families and individuals who arrive at the border. Steyer opposes additional Mexican border wall funding.
Environment
“On day one, we’d do a bunch of things including reentering [the Paris climate accords], freeze and reverse the Trump rulemaking, we’d establish a cabinet-level position, put a climate lens on all purchasing … and if Congress couldn’t pass a Green New Deal, [we] would set clean energy standards,” Steyer said in regards to a climate emergency declaration.
Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren is widely known for her policies on education – promoting free college and university, as well as Medicare for All. Warren began her political career in 2012 when she won the U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts and has served on many advisory committees.
Healthcare
Warren is pro-choice and supports government funding for Planned Parenthood. She has proposed a government-run pharmaceutical manufacturer that “would act when a drug has a shortage of competition or there’s a major price hike.” Her plan to pay for Medicare for All includes taxing the wealthy.
Education
Warren believes education should be free and has proposed an “ultra-millionaire tax” to offset the cost of attending a four-year public university or college. Opposes charter school growth and plans to eliminate the Federal Charter School Program. Her education policies also include pay increases for teachers and canceling some student debt.
Taxes
She wants to increase the capital gains tax rate, raise corporate income taxes, and impose higher taxes on financial institutions. Warren has been pushing for a “wealth tax” where households who have a net worth between $50 million and $1 billion will receive a 2% tax increase and households with a net worth above $1 billion will receive a 6% tax increase.
Environment
She supports banning fracking everywhere and is for a Green New Deal, with a focus on reducing carbon emissions by imposing government regulations. If elected President, Warren will commit to 100% clean energy with all new buildings to be zero-emissions by 2028, electricity to be carbon-neutral by 2030, and all new cars, trucks, and buses to be zero emissions by 2030.
Immigration
She does not support additional funding for building the wall on the U.S. – Mexico border. Supports repealing Section 1325 out of federal law because “we should not be criminalizing mamas and babies trying to flee violence at home or trying to build a better future,” and will allow a pathway for Dreamers to acquire citizenship.
Tulsi Gabbard
Starting her political career young, Tulsi Gabbard moved up the ranks from a sitting member of the Hawaii House of Representatives to Vice-Chair of the Democratic National Committee. In her early years as a state legislator, Gabbard voted against a bill legalizing same-sex civil unions. She has since apologized for her previous views, claiming her “views have changed significantly since then.”
Healthcare
She believes “we don’t have a health care system, we have a sick-care system,” and does not want big insurance and big pharma in the drafting process. Supports Medicare for All, but would still keep private health insurance. To pay for Medicare for All she plans to tax the top 5% wealthiest Americans.
Education
By creating a new tax on stock and bond trades, Gabbard will rid tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities. She would like to fix or expand existing debt-relief programs.
Taxes
Gabbard proposes to eliminate tax breaks for “offshoring.” Supports tax incentives that reward businesses that help workers pay off student loans, renewable energy creation and use, and lower prescription costs.
Environment
She has been an environmental activist since high school and traveled to different schools around Hawaii to educate students on “the importance of our watersheds.” She has consistently pushed for legislation and funding in order to protect oceans, reefs, water infrastructure, national parks, and drinking water.
Immigration
Gabbard is an advocate for keeping children together except in circumstances such as abuse, neglect, or trafficking. Helped introduce the #KeepFamiliesTogether Act that would put an end to the taking of children from their parents at the border. Also supports refugees seeking refuge in the U.S., “while simultaneously addressing the root causes of the crisis.”
Republican Candidate:
Donald Trump
During his time as President, Trump has tightened the requirements for food stamps, received more money from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, introduced the Protect Life Rule which prohibits any government funding from going to any clinic that performs on-site abortions, put effort into ending ‘vaping culture’ among teens by banning certain products, and made acts of animal cruelty a felony with fines and up to seven years in prison.
Healthcare
He prioritizes reducing the cost of medicines and believes that terminally ill patients should have access to new and experimental treatments/medicines. Has allowed some medicine reimportation from Canada. Pursuing the repealing of Obama Care. Trump supports pro-life, and cut government funding from Planned Parenthood.
Education
Trump does not support Common Core, which details what K-12 students should know in English, language arts, and mathematics. Supports expanding school choice across the country so “parents have a voice in their children’s education.”
Taxes
He plans on releasing a proposal for a middle-class tax cut. During 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law which averaged a $1,200 tax return (H&R Block). This tax cut dropped the rates of each bracket by 1%-3%, excluding the minimum and middle class brackets.
Environment
In 2017, Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement and discarded climate change from the list of national security threats. Lifted the ban on the use of E15 (gasoline made with 15% ethanol) and approved the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.
Immigration
Trump has a “zero tolerance” approach to those crossing the border into the U.S. and his 2016 Presidential bid was focused on ending the “catch and release” policy previous Presidents have followed. His immigration policy outlines separating families who crossed the border together, putting the adults in federal prison and the children were put into the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.