What Can We Expect From a New President?

People+celebrating+the+AP+calling+the+election+for+Joe+Biden+at+Washington+Square+Arch+in+New+York+City.+%28Leslie+Bock%29

People celebrating the AP calling the election for Joe Biden at Washington Square Arch in New York City. (Leslie Bock)

Moesha Aplicano-Burnham, Managing Editor

As of Saturday, November 8th, the Associated Press (AP) called the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. As of November 13th, we still have yet to know the final results of North Carolina and Georgia. Although Biden had taken the lead and surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win, there is a lot of speculation and concern regarding voter fraud and mail-in ballots. There will be a recount in a few states but likely the outcome of the election will not change. Trump has also filed lawsuits against Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Michigan. The lawsuits are over the legitimacy of the voting process. Part of his legal agenda was for there to be witnesses over the tallying process of voting, however many these claims have fallen through. There will be an investigation regarding Trump’s accusations of voter fraud, although many sources claim that Trump’s allegations have little to no support.

If Biden maintains the president elect after all the investigations and recounts are finished, there are many changes that he intends to make.  He claims his goal is to rebuild the middle class. He also has a plan to combat Coronavirus and lower the U.S. cases. Said plan is set to begin on January 20th, 2021. He plans to have “transition advisors,” which are well known and talented scientists leading the research and progress regarding Covid-19. Biden also intends to make private and public options of healthcare for those who can’t afford it. He believes that everyone should have access to healthcare.

On the other hand, if  Donald Trump is reelected, He intends on making a healthcare option that costs less than Obamacare. He also claims that he will work on completely eliminating payroll tax. It will only be applied to those who made less than $104,000 in 2020. He plans to have this in action by early 2021. Most of Trump’s resources on his plans for his second term are short and unclear. When asked about his plans for his potential second term, he responded with “Well, I think the press is more eager to see it than the voters, to be honest. I think the voters like me, they understand me, they know I’m going to do the job.” 

All in all, the election of 2020 has been messy to say the least. With Covid-19 and political polarization, the atmosphere surrounding this election has been aggressive and complex. While it’s likely that the current president elect, Joe Biden, will remain the president, we won’t officially know until the coming weeks.