Vice President Biden on the Issues

The Economy

• Supports raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour, the removal of the tipping minimum wage and sub-minimum wage for persons with disabilities. 
• Supports the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) and proposes renegotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
• Proposes raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. 
• Raise the minimum tax on foreign earnings from US companies to 21 percent. 
• Increase the top marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent for individuals earning over 1 million dollars per year. 
• Increase tax credits for essential workers and families with children. 

COVID-19

• Supports a national mask mandate to be implemented by state and local governments
• Proposed doubling the amount of testing sites and mobilizing 100,000 Americans through the creation of a U.S. Public Health Corps
• Wants greater local control over school reopenings based on local conditions
• Supports using the Defense Production Act to increase PPE manufacturing
• Proposes an investment of 25 Billion dollars towards the development and dispersal of a vaccine
• Pledges to immediately rejoin the World Health Organization (WHO)

Climate Change

• Promises plan for the United States to achieve net-zero emissions and 100 percent clean energy economy by 2050.
• Proposes a 2 trillion dollar investment into clean energy focusing on infrastructure, transit, housing, agriculture and conservation.
• Supports 100 percent clean energy electricity sector by 2035. 
• Proposes an end to fossil fuel subsidies. 
• Opposes new fossil fuel extraction on federal land and established wildlife refuges.
• Plans to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord.

Racial and Social Inequality

• Proposes an additional $300 million per year to expand community policing initiatives
• Believes qualified immunity should be ‘reigned in’ but not necessarily abolished. 
• Proposes an end to all mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines.
• Supports the elimination of private prisons, the death penalty and the cash bail system.
• Supports the decriminalization of marijuana and the expungement of prior marijuana convictions.

Women and LGBTQ+ Rights

• Supports codification of Roe V. Wade. Yet to make a statement on potential court appointments. 
• Ended support for the Hyde Amendment during Democratic Primary.
• Pledges to pass the Equality Act which would ‘prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or for other purposes’ during the first 100 days. 
• Pledges to work to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. 
• Supports passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act to address the wage gap.
• Repeal ban of transgender military service.