On the 7th of November 2020, Joe Biden was announced as the new president of the United States. His allocation of Kamala Harris as vice president makes her the first woman of color to ever stand as vice president. Biden secured the popular vote by exceeding more than 4 million votes. However, this was not what won him the presidency. His performance in key battleground states was what secured him his win. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin all turned blue, after having voted for Trump in the 2016 elections. Another win for the election was the huge turnout of eligible voters, as the percentage of people who voted was the highest it has been in over 100 years.
Although in rural areas people voted for Trump even more so than in 2016. Biden still accomplished a solid turnout in cities. As well as swinging the suburbs to Democrats in huge numbers. Biden’s momentous win in urban areas and suburbs were a significant reason as to why he won the election. Of the 436 big metropolitan counties in the US, 71% of them saw an increase in support for Democrats compared to the 2016 election.
However, you probably know all of this already. This article is not here to discuss how Biden won. But to uncover the implications of Biden’s win for businesses across the US. It will analyze Joe Biden’s policies, with a particular focus on his policies in business. As well as what his win will mean for small to medium, and large businesses across the country.
- Joe Biden’s Policies
- Joe Biden’s Policies for Small Businesses
- The Effect of Joe Biden’s Win for Larger Corporations
- Barriers to the Implementation of Joe Biden’s Policies
- The Meaning Of All This For Businesses
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Joe Biden’s Policies
As this article will uncover, Biden’s policies regarding businesses are aimed at lessening the inequalities present within the divided country. Starting with his initiatives centered towards small companies.
Joe Biden’s Policies for Small Businesses
Small businesses have been the worst affected by the corona pandemic. According to Rhett Buttle, Biden’s National Business Advisor “one in six small businesses are probably not coming back.” These grave statistics are rather concerning for small enterprises across the US. However, Biden has drafted a plan of policies to combat this. These will seek to lessen the blow of covid and help small businesses come out the other end. Joe Biden’s policies to aid small business includes 9 key proposals.
Key Policies
- Create a ‘True Small Business Fund.’This will set aside $60 billion in capital reserved for owners of small business’ and community-based institutions.
- Grants instead of loans will be offered to small businesses that have lost a significant proportion of their revenue due to the covid pandemic.
- Every company with less than 50 employees will be eligible for financial relief from the government. The Biden campaign claimed how they would “provide assistance to help small businesses get that relief quickly, especially minority-owned businesses.” Biden’s campaign has also committed to guaranteeing that minority-owned companies receive technical help, this includes support with business accounting and legal advice. Ensuring that they are not excluded from federal aid schemes.
- Providing $50 billion in public and private venture capital to start-ups and entrepreneurs in disadvantaged parts of the country.
- Redirect money that was originally meant to go towards large company bailouts. As well as repurposing any unused Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds towards small companies.
- Create a $400 billion federal procurement package that encourages the purchasing of US-based goods. This aims to provide small and disadvantaged businesses with greater contracting opportunities.
- One of Joe Biden’s policies includes providing a guarantee that all small businesses that qualify will receive relief from the government. These contrast current policies encouraging the restriction of funds, meaning small businesses have to compete against one another.
- Set up a network of business incubators across the country. These will help develop startups. As according to Buttle, “the number of startup businesses is down…and they are the generator of new jobs.”
- Biden’s policy coined ‘No unjust enrichment’ aims to prevent business owners that are already well-off from unjustly making themselves richer through an emergency program set up to help struggling small businesses’.
The Effect of Joe Biden’s Win for Larger Corporations
Joe Biden’s business policies for larger corporations focus on increasing their taxes. This is an attempt to support smaller struggling businesses and reduce North America’s stark wealth gap.
Biden’s Tax Plans
Biden plans to increase the corporate tax rate from the current rate of 21% to 28%. He has also stated how he will instigate a 15% minimum tax on incomes. So to make sure all businesses are paying taxes. According to Urban Institute and Brookings, Biden’s tax plan could increase federal revenues by $2.4 trillion within the upcoming decade. Additionally, he has proposed increasing the tax on capital gains and dividends for incomes over $1 million.
Biden VS Trump’s Tax Plans
According to NBC News and the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity under Trump’s administration, in 2018 two times as many multinational corporations paid nothing in taxes. These companies include the likes of Amazon and Netflix. Additionally, The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that in 2018 when Trump reduced the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, there was a huge decrease in the average federal tax rate, declining to 11.3% for 400 large companies. This was at a 40 year low.
Biden has stated how he will act to eliminate Trump’s tax loopholes that stop companies from getting taxed on foreign profits. Moreover, Biden has also proposed to remove loopholes for those earning over $400,000 a year. Meaning Businesses and business owners with incomes over the threshold will be subjected to the 12.4% Social Security Payroll Tax. Whilst also reducing itemized deductions for those earning over $400,000. Additionally, for taxpayers earning over the threshold, Biden has assured to increase the tax rate from the current rate of 37% to 39.6%. Long-term capital gains for those with an income above $1 million will also be taxed at 39.6%.
Additionally, according to findings from the 2014 U.S. Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, small businesses are those that earn less than $400,000 in revenue a year. Biden’s policies state that those that earn less than $400,000 will not be subjected to an increase in taxes. These increases in tax are mainly targeted towards the wealthy, and large corporations.
Barriers to the Implementation of Joe Biden’s Policies
It must be addressed that Biden’s plans and policies will not be able to be implemented to their full extent if Republicans keep control of the Senate. The combination of a Biden presidency and a Republican Senate would create a smaller economic improvement than if Democrats controlled the Senate. According to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s analytics, it has been projected that with Biden as president and the Senate controlled by a majority of Republicans, the economy would increase by 3.5%, generating an average of 11.6 million new jobs. However, with Biden as president combined with a predominantly Democratically-controlled Senate, the economy would increase by a projected 3.8%, therefore generating 14.1 million new jobs.
Although Joe Biden may be faced with having to implement his policies through a divided Congress, he will still hold a lot of power to shape future US policies. Jason Marczak, director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center stated how “under a Biden presidency, the United States will shift from a ‘with or without us’ approach to a policy that fundamentally believes the United States can achieve more when we work together with partner nations.” The whole world is anxiously waiting to see how President Biden will shape the broken and divided United States.
The Meaning Of All This For Businesses
The Biden- Harris administration has maintained that two principal values make up their policies: leadership and stability. These are vital for small businesses, as Buttle states how “Businesses depend on predictability and the government having some level of stability.”
It is evident that Joe Biden’s policies call for a fairer more equal America, where small businesses and start-ups are supported and provided with financial incentives to flourish and thrive. Whilst large multinational corporations are taxed accordingly on what they earn. This will hopefully work to reduce the huge inequalities present within the United States.
Furthermore, Startup Genome has revealed that due to corona, nearly half of start-ups globally failed within the first 3 months due to corona, with the highest proportion of these based in North America. The hope is that through Biden’s policies favoring small businesses and start-ups the damages can be somewhat reversed.
