Paper Example on Comparing 2020 Presidential Candidates: Trump, Biden & Amash

Introduction

In the following paper, I will detail the research I have completed on the three candidates: Incumbent President, Donald J. Trump, former Vice-President Joe Biden, and likely Libertarian presidential candidate, Justin Amash. My goal in this paper is to objectively lay out the policy goals, accomplishments, background, and polling data related to these candidates.

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Background

Donald John Trump

Incumbent President Donald J. Trump is the 45th President of the U.S.A. He was born on 14th June 1946 in New York U.S. to Frederick Trump and Mary McLeod. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1968. Trump began working full-time in his father’s company soon after his graduation. His father, Frederick Trump, owned a thriving business focused on constructing housing developments in Brooklyn that Donald helped manage. Even before his election, Trump gained a reputation as a shrewd businessperson and capitalized on his reputation to build his brand and expand the Trump conglomerate.

In 2004, he hosted the American reality show ‘The Apprentice’ showcasing business skills of various contestants based on business-associated obstacles. The show majorly garnered positive reviews and was a hit with the American audience prompting a continuation of the series. A vocal man, Trump frequently posted his political criticisms on twitter; he identified as a Republican and was harsh and critical on Obama Care. It was not until 2015 that he stated he would be vying for the presidency.

Joseph Robinette Biden

Popularly referred to as Joe Biden, he was born on 20th November 1972 in Pennsylvania, the U.S. He served as the 47th vice president of the United States of America (2009-2017). Biden played football before attending The Syracuse College of Law and graduated with a degree in law in 1968. Biden practiced as a councilor before he entered into politics: elected into the Senate in 1972, he is the sixth youngest senator in American history. An unfortunate accident occurred the same year left him a widower after the death of his first wife and young daughter. Biden identifies as a Democrat: in 1988 and 2008, he unsuccessfully ran for the presidency. He has previously served as Chair of The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, The International Narcotics Control, and The Senate Judiciary Committee.

Justin Amash

Justin Amash was born on 18th April 1980 to Arab-Christian immigrant parents in Michigan U.S. e was an outstanding student throughout his life and even graduated valedictorian from Grand Rapids Christian High School in 1998. Amash attended the University of Michigan Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 2005. He worked as a lawyer and consultant for three years and later entered politics. Previously identifying as a republican, Amash changed parties in April 2020 to join the Libertarian party as run for the presidency as an independent candidate.

Scandals

Trump

President Trump has been at the center of many scandals during his time in office. Trump is notorious for his unfiltered language: accusations of using racial slurs, derogative language, and sexual misconduct have marred his presidency. In 2018, Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress pressed charges against Trump and his attorney for the validity of a non-disclosure agreement they had her sign in 2016. Questions arose on whether Trump and his attorney used campaign funds to pay her off or whether it was out-off-pocket money. Although Trump's attorney Cohen pleaded guilty to the allegations, Trump's team vehemently denied any involvement in using campaign funds to settle payments.

Biden

In 2019, several women accused Biden of gross misconduct and claimed he kissed and touched them inappropriately. Tara Reade came forward and accused Biden of sexually assaulting her back in 1993 while she was a member of staff. She allegedly claimed he touched her inappropriately. However, her former colleagues stated they never received information on Biden's misconduct from her. Further investigation into the matter and investigation prompted Biden to request the secretary of the United States Senate to release personal files to prove his innocence. Biden denied assaulting Tara but offered a public apology afterward to anyone whom he may have offended previously. Despite these sexual misconduct accusations, Biden still maintained high popularity in the race for the presidency 2020.

Amash

In 2017, Amash voted against the sex abuse bill intended to protect young athletes from sex abuse. The bill sought to have sexually assaulted athletes promptly report abusers to the United States Olympic Committee (Ferguson, 2018). In his defense, Amash stated that federal authorities mandated with the power to prosecute and investigate should handle such cases. Allowing Congress to interfere with criminal laws would be unconstitutional.

Economic Policy

Trump

President Trump's economic policies seek to protect the U.S.A. from the trading competition. Amadeo (2020) discusses Trump’s actions to impose some tariffs on China and Japan to discourage importation and encourage manufacture within the U.S. Despite his aim to grow the economy, the U.S. stock market fell and lost goodwill with the Eastern countries. Currently battling the Covid-19 pandemic, the national debt has increased during his presidency. His plan to reduce government spending and corporate tax cuts has only added to the debt.

Biden

Biden's approach to the current economic recession through his ‘Build Back Better’ campaign focuses on the immediate relief of families and communities battling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic (Khalid and Sprunt 2020). His agenda focuses on creating jobs for Americans through investment and development in the production sector and within the U.S.

Amash

Amash proposed that states use a balanced budget to control the rate of government spending. The balanced budget would set a cap on spending by setting an estimate of revenues and expenses incurred (Byrd, 2020). The implementation would ensure the business cycle would balance over a planned decade long transition. His proposal faced opposition since it would limit the president's funding and spending on the military and bring a conflict of interest.

Healthcare Policy

Trump

One of President Trump’s leading campaign agendas was to reform the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as the Obama care Act. Even before he vied for presidency, he harshly analyzed the effectiveness and costliness of the healthcare policies. Trump planned to repeal the Act and reduce government interference in the healthcare market. However, he failed twice to pass the bill successfully through Congress due to low votes (Duigan, 2020).

More so, he had not penned out effective replacement policies for the ACA. Instead, he devised a controversial measure to counter the Obama Care in a bid to sabotage it. He reduced advertisement funding for Obama care, reduced enrolment periods for people seeking to register, and ended cost subsidies with insurance providers. However, it resulted in higher premiums and less insurance coverage of millions of Americans.

Biden

Former vice president Biden was a great supporter of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and promised to build on Obama’s legacy of providing affordable healthcare for all Americans. Biden's presidential healthcare agenda focuses on handling several key issues. Biden supports Medicare and hopes to reduce the age of qualification for Medicaid from 65-60 yrs. Since older citizens have a harder time, getting jobs Medicaid would ensure elderly persons have access to health insurance earlier. As part of his Agenda, Biden aims to create transparency and regulation of the drug manufacturing industry reducing cost deflation for vulnerable citizens (D’Souza, 2020).

Amash

Libertarian Representative Amash opposes the ACA: he had voted against the Obama Care Act during his time in Congress. He states that it infringes on the right of each state’s ability to choose the best health insurance alternatives (Byrd, 2020). Amash is anti-abortion and opposes government funding for abortions except in incidences of saving the mother’s life. More so, he has called for the decriminalization of drugs such as marijuana that have medicinal properties. Amash has called for regulation of the drug to curb illegalities about its use and handling.

Education Policy

Trump

President Trump proposed reducing control over educational policies by the federal government. In a bid to curb fund mismanagement and fraud, he vouched for more participation and decision control reverted to states and schools. Trump opposed the Common Core curriculum and called for the implementation of a local syllabus for the American students.

He campaigned for states molding their curriculums best suited for their students' needs. In his FY 2021 education budget proposal, Trump set aside $900 million to increase funding for Career and Technical Education (CTE) to ensure American students would get access to quality College and vocational training after high school. His most endearing bid was on the assistance of offsetting student college loans.

Biden

Biden has been vocal about writing off student debt for students in public universities: his proposal will see the cancellation of individual loan debts of up to $10,000. In addition to this, Biden intends to increase funding for African-American colleges that for years faced underfunding. Borrowing ideas from Sander's educational bid: he promises to make education in public colleges free for struggling students living under the poverty level.

Amash

His educational proposals are conservative and closely relate to Trump’s conservative policies. Amash supports the disbandment of the Department of Education to reduce federal government interference in setting education standards and curriculums (Byrd, 2020). He supports the idea that parents and students being able to choose what type of education they want depending on individual preferences. Amash also proposes increased financial subsidies be provided to colleges to create more opportunities for students to acquire affordable higher education. The government subsidies would allow schools to set lower fee costs and enable children from poor communities to access quality education.

Environment Policy

Trump

According to Popovich et al., 2020, President Trump seeks to overturn a record 100 of the environmental policies enforced by previous U.S. president Barack Obama. Trump’s reversal of regulations governing industries has contributed to drastic degradation leading to increased land, water, and air pollution. He has allowed drilling companies to operate and construct oil pipelines on conservancies. Trump has also overruled regulations that seek to ensure such companies provide pollution reports or proof that they can rehabilitate contaminated lands afterward.

Biden

Joe Biden disapproves of Trump's disregard for community welfare concerning environmental issues. He proposes to reinstate U.S. membership to the Paris Agreement to combat drastic climate caused by pollution. Biden plans to put community participation and welfare and hold industries accountable for their actions by calling for the publication of production and pollution reports in the industrial sector. He is a supporter of clean-green energy that will reform the industrial and manufacturing sector to ensure the U.S. is at the forefront of safe development.

Amash

Amash has held his stance on resisting Obama’s environmental policies. The Libertarian has previously stated that regulations have no effect curbing the current global climate crisis (Byrd, 2020). His recommendations on climate involve investing in green renewable energy. By investing in technology, industries will ha...