← go back to candidate list
Joe Biden, candidate for president
Former US Vice President
former U.S. vice president
born Nov. 20, 1942, in Scranton, Penn.
graduated Syracuse University 1968
U.S. Senate from Delaware 1973-2009
2020 campaign marks his third presidential run
officially nominated to run as Democratic candidate for president on Aug. 18, 2020
https://joebiden.com/
Biden on impeachment:
"Donald Trump has violated his oath of office, betrayed this nation and committed impeachable acts." Source: Huffington Post
Slogan: Our Best Days Still Lie Ahead
Joe Biden, candidate for president's view on
Under his plan, no one would be required to pay more than 8.5% of their income toward health insurance premiums.
His plan would be free for low-income people in states that refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Under his plan, everyone would have a choice to either buy private insurance or " buy into the exchange to a "Medicare-like plan."
Biden's plan also directly calls for the federal government to fund some abortions. "[T]he public option will cover contraception and a woman's constitutional right to choose," according to his plan.
The former vice president says he would protect and build on Obamacare, "adding a public option to Obamacare as the best way to lower costs and cover everyone."
The former vice president backs banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Biden, who authored the 1994 assault weapons ban, is in favor of universal background checks and renewing a ban on assault weapons.
He proposes a ban on gun manufacturers from building modifications to their products that make pistols as deadly as rifles
He has called for an assault weapons buyback program much like those that took place in New Zealand and Australia in wake of mass shootings.
Biden has spoken unfavorably about licensing plans, saying "gun licensing will not change whether or not people buy what weapons — what kinds of weapons they can buy, where they can use them, how they can store them."
Climate change/environment
In 1986, then-Senator Biden introduced the first-ever climate bill to establish a task force on the issue.
He has previously expressed support for a price on carbon and Green New Deal. The Reagan administration pretty much ignored his bill, but it did call for an EPA national policy on climate change and annual reports to Congress.
Biden has signaled he will embrace central concepts of the Green New Deal — that the US needs to get net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and that the environment and economy are connected.
Immigration/child-parent separation, detention and border wall
Biden vowed not to deport veterans who are not US citizens.
In 2006, he voted in favor of building 700 miles of fence on the US-Mexico border, costing taxpayers close to $2.5 billion. *
As vice president, he supported the cause of DREAMers, who were brought to the US illegally as children.
Biden said that there should be a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
The former vice president urged Congress to pass the DREAM Act, but during the second debate Part II, he called it a crime to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally and said you should be able to be sent back — which triggered criticism from immigrant-rights activists.
Biden rips President Trump's policy for "horrifying scenes at the border of kids being kept in cages, tear-gassing asylum seekers, ripping children from their mothers' arms."
Economy/minimum wage/income inequality
Biden favors increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and eliminating non-compete agreements for workers.
Biden said he would raise the top individual income tax rate to 39.5% from 37% for individual single taxpayers with incomes greater than $510,300, and raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.
He proposes that earners with annual incomes over $1 million pay 39.6% on capital gains instead of 20%.
Education/student debt/free tuition
By relying on executive actions, the former vice president's plan would increase funding in poor school districts, help teachers pay off loans, double number of health workers in schools, triple federal Title I funding for schools that serve low-income areas and close $23 billion funding gap between white and other schools.
Biden argued for "free community college for every single person," saying the $6 billion price tag would increase the United States' gross domestic product (GDP) and reduce spending on four-year college.
He backed a law in 2005 that barred borrowers from discharging private student loans in bankruptcy.
According to Truthout, Biden is at the center of the decades-long campaign by lenders to eviscerate consumer-debt protections.
In 2015, as vice president, Biden called for four years of free public college. He has offered no real specifics or plans for implementation.
In his speech announcing that he would not run for president in 2016, Biden called for 16 years of free public education, including community college and four-year public colleges.
Biden, who supported the war in Iraq and is known as a political centrist, denounced the US support for Saudi Arabia's war with Yemen.
While saying the US needs to get tough on China, the candidate slams President Trump's policy of tariffs on Beijing.
Biden called to "build a united front" of economic partners to hold China accountable.
As a senator, he voted in favor of the Iraq War in 2002, but later opposed President George W. Bush's troop surge in 2007, and in 2006, he co-wrote a five-step strategy to pull U.S. forces from Iraq.
The former vice president received five student draft deferments during the Vietnam War.
In 2014, Biden told Time magazine he did not support legalization.
In the 80s, Biden led the charge in the federal government's War on Drugs and called for the creation of "a drug czar."
He shifted his position in July, calling for the decriminalization* of marijuana, for states to be allowed to legalize it as they see fit, and for it to be downgraded to a Schedule II substance at the federal level.
Today, Biden supports decriminalization but not legalization.