Some San Jose State community members expressed high expectations for President Joe Biden as he takes control of the Oval Office.
Business marketing sophomore Arielle Lew said she’s happy to see Biden replace his predecessor Donald Trump.
“I am fully expecting the new administration to address and fix the issues that were uncovered in the previous presidency,” Lew said over text.
Now that Biden was sworn in on Jan. 20, she wants to see him fulfill his promises, especially in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Americans are dying due to the disorganization and lack of effort from the previous administration,” Lew said. “Those of us who are ‘alive and well’ are stuck in an extended form of purgatory while we wait for our leaders to handle the crisis.”
Biden’s campaign promised swift and effective action to stop the spread, supply a vaccine and provide economic relief, according to Joe Biden’s COVID-19 webpage.
While a single stimulus check of $600 was distributed Dec. 29, Biden promised an additional $1,400 and said he’s open to lowering the income cap so less Americans receive the payment, according to a Feb. 1 article by The Hill.
The article stated the income cap would be lowered from $75,000 annually to $50,000 annually for single households and from $150,000 annually to $75,000 annually for married couples in effort to prioritize families in need.
House Democrats released the portions of their COVID-19 relief package on Monday, including the distribution of $1,400 to most Americans by the end of February, according to a Monday article by The Hill.
Biden signed 17 executive orders on his first day in office. During the following eight days, he signed 28 more executive orders in which 16 of those were directly aimed at tackling COVID-19, according to a Jan. 25 NBC article.
The orders include expanding access to COVID-19 treatments, facilitating more COVID-19-related data and strengthening public health supply chain under the Defense Production Act, according to the same NBC article.
The Defense Production Act was invoked to ramp up and assess availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other resources needed to distribute tests and vaccines.
The orders also included establishing the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force and supporting the reopening and continuing operation of schools, according to the same NBC article.
Biden also created the COVID-19 Response Coordinator positions. These positions will be responsible for reporting directly to Biden and managing efforts to produce and distribute vaccines and PPE, according to a Dec. 29 Politico article.
The article stated the three different positions within the COVID-19 Response team are supply coordinator, vaccine coordinator and testing coordinator.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio stated in a Jan. 22 Twitter post that Biden issued more executive decrees than any other president in such a short period of time, “more than Obama, more than Trump, more than anyone.”
Economics junior Juan Rodriguez said he thinks Biden isn’t doing enough in adequate time.
“I think Biden is off to a good start but we need more speedy action,” Rodriguez said over Instagram. “I know Californians are suffering months of no income as a result of [the Economic Development Department’s] lack of preparedness for [the pandemic].”
Political science junior Ethan Koch believes Biden’s presidential policies could be detrimental toward Americans.
“[My biggest reservations] are [Biden’s] tax bills and how he wants to allow for more property taxes,” Koch said over Zoom. “Although these things help fund a lot of local government, they put a lot of stress on people in more wealthy areas.”
Bernard Yaros Jr., an economist with the financial services company Moody’s Analytics, said in a Jan. 20 ABC7 article that Biden will likely reverse Trump’s tax cuts successfully.
The same ABC7 article stated Biden should also succeed in raising the corporate income tax rate, increasing the tax rate for incomes $400,000 or higher and eliminating few tax breaks for incomes $1 million or higher.
If Biden can significantly raise the tax rates, they aren’t expected to kick in until 2024 to ensure there’s no inflation on the economy when it’s still recovering from the pandemic, according to the same article.
Koch said he worries spending an abundance of money on issues including taxes, immigration and climate change will take away Biden’s ability to focus on getting the U.S. out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Political science professor James Brent said Biden is a more competent president than Trump and is excited at the prospect of returning to “normal.”
“The promises that [Biden’s] made, I think have been made sincerely . . . whether or not he can pass them is a different story,” Brent said over Zoom.
He said while Biden might not be able to pass everything he’d like to, he can do a lot through executive action and changing the priorities of executive agencies.
“I would like to see a president that acts like a president,” Brent said. “The president is the chief executive and that means that their main duty is to make sure that the laws are carried out. Donald Trump did not care one bit about what was legal.”
He said restoring the public’s faith in the law is “far more important than any specific policy.”
According to Joe Biden’s justice webpage, Biden’s plan to address issues in the judicial system will include steps to weed out racism.
The webpage stated he plans to pull back Trump-era restrictions that kept police departments from being investigated, as well as invest in public defenders, eliminate mandatory minimum prison sentences and end incarcerations for nonviolent drug crimes.
Lew said she hopes to see open communication and effort between political parties to obtain a functional and prolific government.
Brent said with Trump’s administration over, he’s unsure whether unity in the U.S. is a likely outcome in Biden’s next four years.
He said he thinks many Americans are feeling a “sense of relief” now that the political chaos of the 2020 presidential election is over that could possibly translate to political inactivity.
“A sort of calm has descended over America that we haven’t had in 4 years . . . I think that that’s going to be attractive to people for a while,” Brent said.