Possible Changes and New Policies under a Biden Presidency

If all goes as planned, on December 14 the Electoral College will cast their votes, and Joe Biden will officially be elected – or confirmed – as the 46th President Elect of the United States.

A question many Hispanics have asked is ... How will a Biden presidency affect their Community? Even though the following aren’t “Hispanic specific” policies or proposals, they will affect the Hispanic community as they will the overall population.

Assuming all of his campaign promises will translate into real action, and that he gets the support of congress on those proposals that need to have their approval, this is what we can expect:

Taxes Joe Biden has stated that he is going to propose a tax increase to those earning over 400,000 dollars a year. This is only 1% of income earners, so Hispanics will be part of the majority that will be unaffected. However, those who are investing may also be affected with new taxes.

Nevertheless, any planned tax increases face two important challenges, (1) If the senate continues to be controlled by Republicans – and this won’t be decided until the Georgia runoff elections for two senators in January, they may oppose Biden’s tax increase proposals and (2) at this time, with all the fallout due to the pandemic, a tax increase will not be a popular proposal with anyone. So time will tell.

Education Biden’s proposals include some debt forgiveness on student loans and free public college for low-income Americans, which, of course, will also benefit many Hispanic families, freeing up money to invest, buy homes, pay out other debt and so much more. Once again, however, this isn’t something he can implement unilaterally.

Immigration Of course, this is a top concern both for those who are still hoping to legalize their status or who have loved ones in this situation. Biden has already stated that he will immediately reinstate DACA, which will bring on a sigh of relief for many. This is something he has the authority to do, since it was first implemented through executive action by President Obama, then temporarily preserved by Trump until he tried to revoke it. There were also a number of executive actions that Trump installed to restrict immigration, which will most likely now be repealed by a Biden administration. This includes lifting restrictions on H1B temporary visas for highly skilled foreign workers. Biden also hopes to offer a path to citizenship for the many undocumented. However, as mentioned before, any final decision in this area it will require congress to come together and agree.

Healthcare Biden’s view on healthcare is considerably different that Trump’s. To begin with, he plans to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and include a lower cost public option that would be more accessible and affordable. For example, he would like to make it accessible to DACA recipients and other undocumented immigrants, but they would not receive any kind of subsidy. Also, taking into account that one of the major complaints about ACA is that it is too expensive without subsidies, he wants to expand those eligible for subsidies (right now it is subsidized, on a sliding scale, for those earning under 400 percent of the poverty level) and increase the amounts.

So this is just an overview of some of the changes in policies we may see.