Trump vs. Biden: Policy Breakdown
The ignorant vote based on popularity (“My friends like him.”) and personality (“He seems nice!”).
The informed vote based on policy.
Trump lists some of his policies on his website whereas Biden doesn’t even bother…
As much as this highlights the well-documented low political information of Democrats (Republicans aren’t much better) the main reason to vote for either candidate is based on policies (particularly when they’re so polarized) so let’s compare both to see who’s more right on the big stuff…
Cut spending.
Biden wants to raise spending a lot.
Since 2021 the federal government has spent about $25T or $75,000 per American ($118,000 if you include state & local spending). Biden’s proposed 2025 budget is $7.3T, which would be a 12.3% increase from the previous year!
Question: do you think doubling down on the same statist agenda will improve your life long-term?
Trump however wants to cut large chunks of federal agencies’ budgets.
Cut taxes.
Biden says he doesn’t want to raise taxes on those making under $400K a year, but he supports raising the corporate tax from 21% to 28% (most companies have fewer than 5 employees at an average revenue of $387,000 so obviously this would be a tax increase on those making under $400K) and the personal tax for high-income workers from 37% to 39.6%. He also supports introducing new taxes such as a stock buyback tax, corporate alternative minimum tax, and a wealth tax.
Trump wants to cut taxes. First and foremost he wants to extend his 2017 tax cuts, but beyond that he has said he wants another “big tax cut,” which he’d need to pass to offset his proposed tariff increase.
The biggest tax increase we’re looking at though is inflation. They both support the Fed lowering interest rates since it’s good for the stock market as it subtly transfers wealth from workers to owners. They’ve also run up a huge debt, which is largely paid for with inflation, but at least Trump wants to cut spending (main driver of long-term inflation/debt) and put us on a more solid monetary foundation by opposing a digital dollar and at least theoretically supporting hard money. Biden has also fueled inflation by weaponizing the dollar against Russia therefore prompting more nations to abandon it as their reserve currency.
Cut bureaucracy, bureaucrats, laws, and regulations.
Biden wants to increase them all. To this day, Democrats think the 08 crash was due to deregulation or that the problem with the pandemic is the government didn’t lock us down enough or that the problem with single-parenthood is that Uncle Sam doesn’t interject himself enough into the family. Every problem is met with a new program and regulation. In a microscope they may sound good, but collectively they drain our country of its entrepreneurial moral spirit as force begets force.
Trump wants to cut them all a lot. By cutting regulations it’ll free up healthcare, education, housing, energy, etc. The Left focuses on first-order effects, but the second-order effects of deregulation would be a massive growth in the supply of goods and services.
Cutting red tape also makes our country politically freer because the powers-that-be couldn’t as easily selectively enforce the law against their opposition by throwing the book at them.
Improve the Constitution, bureaucracy, bureaucrats, laws, and regulations.
Biden wants to dilute the meaning of the Constitution by appointing justices who’ll take certain clauses and stretch them to such an extent that effectively the federal government can do whatever it wants with power increasingly concentrated in an unelected administrative state. Progressives like this “progressive” approach when 5 justices come down on their side of an issue, but it sets a dangerous precedent where all limits on government power become a matter of open interpretation. Race? What is that? Can I now identify as a 12-year-old black disabled girl simply because I feel I am one? Free speech? You mean malinformation?! States? You mean federal administrative units?!
Trump wants to continue to appoint justices who will restore the meaning of the Constitution. He also supports useful amendments such as congressional term limits (Biden supports for the Supreme Court so a compromise could be made) and a balanced budget requirement.
Trump also wants to make our bureaucracy more meritocratic by making it easier to fire incompetent federal employees again so that they actually have to answer to their elected bosses.
More housing.
Biden wants to give tax credits to home buyers, which will “bid up the price of housing that is already in short supply.”
Over the last 80 years, the federal government has had 42 housing programs where Biden’s solution is to throw more money at air-conditioned bureaucrats. It’s as if his proposals are perfectly calibrated to sound like he wants to increase affordable housing, but to effectively do little so as to not spook the stock market.
Trump wants to build ten “Freedom Cities.” Idk how politically & economically feasible these cities are, e.g. if too few businesses move there they might turn into ghost towns, but at least he’s aiming in the right direction by wanting to build more housing (it’d be more constitutionally sound to pass a new Homestead Act for veterans).
Smart immigration.
Biden supports worse than open borders.
He supports open borders only for those willing to break the law. If however you want to come in legally then get in line and pay up! You can also tell how anti-American he and his team are because they know they can enforce the border without any new law, but they think you’re so stupid that you’ll believe his Trojan horse border bill was needed. In the swamp, optics come before country.
Trump supports a strong border and mass deportation, which is obviously what’s needed if we want a strong republic that lifts workers’ wages and reduces housing costs.
Reduce the threat of WMDs (nuclear, biological, chemical, and AI).
Biden’s pathetic handling of China, Afghanistan, and Russia has pushed much of the world into Iran’s hands who is advancing toward a nuclear weapon that they could then leak to one of their many terrorist organizations who could then use it against Israel or us. If Tel Aviv was nuked by Hezbollah what should we do?
If China unleashes another virus will Democrats suppress those of us again who called them out?
If AI improves enough where the first-mover effect becomes an all-or-nothing game of global supremacy will Biden have the courage to act first?
Trump is more than willing to ignore our military-industrial complex in favor of making deals that make himself look good, which could cause him to concede too much, but at least he’d be sentient enough at the negotiation table where he could save millions of lives & livelihoods by making Ukrainian aid contingent upon negotiations, lifting North Korean sanctions contingent upon denuclearization, and reducing Chinese tariffs contingent upon reciprocity, etc.
On each of these key areas Trump gets the W.
How successful he’ll be in following through is up for debate, but at least he’s aiming in the Right direction.
What’s holding back many of my liberal friends from acknowledging the truth is fear (after all, our oligarchy is leftwing), which they try to mollify by overemphasizing personal faults (for every personal fault you see in Trump I can raise you 2 on “the big guy”) or catastrophizing secondary-issues (“OMG the climate crisis,” says the guy flying around in a private jet who just bought more beachfront property because the market expects it to be worth more in 20 years), but I’m here to say that loving your country is directly proportional to how much courage you’re willing to demonstrate in defense of it and now more than ever America is calling out for you to stand atop that mountain MLK Jr. spoke of and proudly proclaim, “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN… AGAIN!!!!”