Joe Biden’s big job
President Elect Joe Biden has a hard job ahead of him. Not only will he have to deal with coronavirus, which continues to rage out of control, but he must deal with the economic fallout from the virus. Being left with a faltering economy is not new to Joe Biden. He and Barack Obama inherited an economy that was called “the worst since the depression.” Hence, Biden is no stranger to what it takes to reinvigorate a sagging economy.
In addition to tackling coronavirus and the economy, Wall Street Journal reported that two things Biden plans to tackle are Trump’s education and immigration policies. Betsy DeVos spent much of her time trying to take money from public education to transfer to private education, sort of like Robin Hood in reverse. Biden, having been married to two schoolteachers, knows a bit about education and its importance to children of all socioeconomic levels. He has vowed to put a teacher in charge of education. Arne Duncan, Obama’s former Education secretary, believes that DeVos chose to “side with the powerful and not the vulnerable, not the marginalized,” WSJ reported. Biden wants to change that.
While Biden may have a Republican-controlled Senate in his way, WSJ believes that he will have an easier time eliminating DeVos’ civil rights recensions. According to WSJ, Biden is not a big supporter of charter schools, but he is advocating free tuition to community college for those families earning less than $125,000 per year, which opens the door to those who might not otherwise be able to afford to send their children to college. He also wants to double the Pell Grant, spend billions on public schools, and triple funding for Title I. Biden’s most daunting task, however, will materialize in his efforts to overturn Trump’s immigration policies.
CNN characterizes the Trump administration’s immigration policies as “the genius of Stephen Miller.” This is not a compliment. Miller so successfully convoluted these policies that they are “a complicated mess,” according to an unnamed source. The source further said that unraveling these policies is “overwhelming,” but CNN reported that the Biden-Harris transition team seems to have some awareness of the situation as evidenced by the selection of Ur Jaddou, former chief counsel for US Citizenship and Immigration, as the team lead, and Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security secretary. The changes the team seeks to undertake, however, will be daunting. A backlog exists in hearing asylum cases because of Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, and it will reportedly take months to undo those regulations. In the interim, Biden’s team wants to create a safer and more secure environment for asylum seekers while not creating an environment that will draw even more asylum seekers. It will require a delicate balancing act.
Biden does indeed have a very tough task ahead; however, he has been wise in assembling his team. Experience and knowledge trump (no pun intended) nepotism and donor repayment and should, hopefully, produce positive results.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years