The Economy and Healthcare- Team Biden

In response to the first question of whether or not Biden will raise taxes on businesses: There is an assumption that tax cuts are a cure-all, and that any tax increase, no matter how surgical or strategic is hurtful to the economy. But keep this in mind, President Bill Clinton increased taxes for corporations to 35% in the 1990s (higher than what Joe Biden is now proposing) and the economy experienced 4% annual growth rates in GDP. The reason VP Biden supports tax increases for corporations and for the top 1% of the income bracket is that we need revenue if we are going to be able to pay for the necessary investments in infrastructure and start building a Green economy that will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels- these investments will create jobs and lead to economic growth, but we have to be honest- the money needs to come from somewhere. With all due respect to my friends defending the president, you can’t both promise tax cuts and increased spending for infrastructure and other important government programs like the military—I mean you can, but I think that is the definition of voodoo Economics! The Biden plan will both bring about economic growth and reduce the deficit that has increased under Trump. An analysis done of the Biden economic plan by Moody’s, a non-partisan Wall Street research firm, found that the Biden plan would produce more economic growth than the Trump economic plan and it would do so by reducing the deficit by more than 6%. When he ran for the presidency, Donald Trump promised his tax cuts would lead to economic growth; he promised rates of 4% percent annually; in reality, in the first years of his presidency, we saw modest growth, a 2.6% annual increase in GDP-- hardly the greatest economy in American history. The President promised that he would rebuild America with an ambitious infrastructure plan, but the reality is that we have yet to see those new buildings, bridges, and roads. President Trump’s tax cuts not only failed to deliver the economic growth that was promised; they also led to a significant increase in the deficit from 4.4% to 6.3% of GDP, which was before the Coronavirus. Put it another way, while the president personally owes 400 million dollars to his creditors; he also added 2 trillion dollars of debt to which we the taxpayers will one day have to pay the bill. VP Biden has a proven record of bringing about economic recovery. The 2008 recession was the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression; our financial system was in shambles. Biden was responsible for implementing the economic recovery plan- when he took office, the rate of unemployment was 10%, when he left it was at 4%. Here is an inconvenient fact for defenders of President Trump. The last three years of the Obama-Biden administration saw the deficit go down while 1.6 million more jobs were created than in the first three years of the Trump presidency. The claim that Trump created the greatest economy on earth by Trump and his supporters, is simply fiction.

In response to the second question of the Affordable Care Act: First, I’d like to explain what is ACA, also known as Obamacare. Obama care was passed in 2010, It granted healthcare access to 20 million uninsured Americans. It did this by the following steps: expanding Medicaid eligibility, creating health insurance exchanges, allowing children to remain on their parents’ healthcare plans until 26, and most importantly, preventing insurance companies from denying patients with pre-existing medical conditions healthcare. Health costs are the number one reason people go bankrupt. With Obamacare, many Americans gained access to insurance and avoided this faith. Joe Biden worked with Barack Obama to pass the ACA, although Trump would like to get rid of it, it’s very popular. PICTURE THIS: you are someone with God forbid diabetes, asthma or even had cancer. These are all examples of pre-existing conditions. Before the ACA, you could be denied the right to health insurance, even if you HAD the money to pay for it!!! This is just one way the ACA changed millions of Americans’ lives for the better.

In regard to what is the Public Option, and what does it do that Medicaid does not. A public health option would create a government-run health insurance agency while leaving intact private insurance companies. This would create competition and potentially lower the prices of healthcare premiums with a cheaper substitution. There is a fundamental difference between Biden and trump. Trump thinks everything can be solved by private agencies. Biden is not a socialist, he understands that private agencies are needed, but he also believes that the government should intervene and help those who can’t afford it. The public option does just that, it allows those who no longer wish to pay their high premiums for private insurance, to opt-in to public health insurance. Many will choose to continue their use of private insurance that is very expensive, but those who wish will be able to use the public insurance at little or no cost. To the question: what would it do that Medicaid does not? Medicaid is a joint state and federal program that provides healthcare coverage to 72.5 million Americans. The type of people who qualify for Medicaid varies by state, but usually, Medicaid covers low-income people, the elderly, and people with disabilities. The public option in comparison would allow anyone who needs insurance the option to gain access to it through a Public Option, not only if you qualify for Medicaid through your state requirements. This would be especially crucial today as millions of people suffered substantial monetary losses due to Covid. For struggling families, a public option could save them tens of thousands of dollars a year and allow them to access quality healthcare.