From the coronavirus to the environment, Biden plans to take government in new direction

Despite outlining a detailed agenda on his website, President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign often focused less on policies than his temperament and character, seeking to make the election a referendum on President Trump’s four years in office. More recently, he has urged Congress to provide economic relief and public health funding, and for Trump to coordinate with his incoming officials on a vaccine distribution plan, warning that “more people may die if we don’t coordinate.” Environment Biden made tackling climate change a centerpiece of his campaign, proposing to invest $2 trillion in a massive green-jobs program to build renewable energy infrastructure. Healthcare During the Democratic primaries, Biden diverged from many of his rivals by rejecting calls to move all Americans onto a single government health plan through “Medicare for all.” Biden, who as vice president was a strong supporter of President Obama’s push to enact the Affordable Care Act, instead argued that expanding the 2010 law and keeping a mix of government plans and employer-based insurance would be more practical, less costly and less disruptive. Politics Major gun safety group endorses Joe Biden’s presidential bid Vice President Joe Biden has received the endorsement of one of the nation’s largest gun safety groups in the latest sign Bernie Sanders’ spotty record on guns may be weighing him down in the presidential primary Policing Biden has backtracked from the tough-on-crime positions he took during his decades in the Senate by advocating for progressive reforms designed to limit the use of force by police, while rejecting left-wing calls to “defund” or dismantle local police departments. Biden has said he will reverse the Trump administration’s position on consent decrees and expand the Justice Department’s oversight powers of troubled local departments to include “systemic misconduct by prosecutors’ offices.” Biden has also called for reducing prison populations, including by eliminating mandatory minimums, decriminalizing marijuana use and diverting drug users away from prisons and toward treatment programs.