Will Biden’s administration residency feel like Obama’s ninth-year presidency on certain issues?

Jan 23, 2021 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Kaieteur News – As Joe Biden took the oath of office as the 46th President of the United States, the ongoing debate over the validity of the election itself obscured any discussion of what is to be expected during his administration. Former president Donald J. Trump spent significant time subverting executive actions by President Barack Obama, and as such, we should expect from Joe Biden a return to the Obama administration policies. Based on statements made during the Biden campaign, here are some of what the new administration should be expected to do.
Following the passage of Obamacare, officially known as the Affordable Care Act, there has been a displayed reluctance by Congress to make significant reforms in health policy. Major changes have come about as a result of court decisions, and smaller changes largely have been the work of executive action by presidents.
It is predicted by policy experts that President Biden will restore federal funding to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood, a non-profit health care provider, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. A Trump administration rule preventing abortion centers from obtaining Federal Title X funding, which helps to ensure that every person — regardless of where they live, their background, the amount of money they make or whether or not they have health insurance — has access to basic, preventive reproductive health carehttps://www.dailysignal.com/2019/08/19/planned-parenthood-sided-with-abortion-over-title-x-funds-heres-what-it-means/ is also expected to be reversed.
The Biden administration is expected to return to the policies of the Obama administration and
push local schools to permit access to restrooms and locker rooms depending on a student’s gender identity rather than sex. The former administration allowed schools to make their own rules regarding use of school facilities, permitting policies that limit private areas to biological boys or biological girls.
President Barack Obama quashed the Mexico City Policy originally created by President Ronald Reagan and reinstated by President Trump. This policy disallows U. S. tax dollars from being used to pay for abortions overseas. According to Biden’s “agenda for women”, the new president will rescind the policy so that U.S. taxpayers once again fund abortion groups that promote abortion overseas.
During the Trump administration, individuals and employers were provided with relief from the Obamacare mandate requiring health plans to pay for contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs. Biden is expected to eliminate the moral and religious exemptions that made that relief possible. This would result in tens of millions of dollars in fines on charities such as the world’s most tenacious nuns – Little Sisters of the Poor, who took the government all the way to the Supreme Court and won in their fight for religious liberty. https://www.heritage.org/religious-liberty/commentary/little-sisters-poor-win-big-supreme-court-fight-isnt-over.
Banned from military service were those who identify as transgender, on the grounds that their unique challenges interfered with the goals of military readiness. Biden likely will overturn this policy so that the military will pay for gender reassignments for service members and keep those going through a sex change on active duty.
The Trump administration prohibited the U.S. government from discriminating against grant applicants because of their religious beliefs. As a result, religious foster care agencies, adoption agencies, and homeless shelters could compete for federal grants on equal footing with others. However, this current administration is expected to create rules that will disqualify any entity that believes marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman, that sex cannot change, or that children do best with both a mother and father in their lives.
Previous administration policies enforced federal law to protect health care providers from being required to perform abortions or gender reassignment surgeries, or to dispense drugs in violation of their conscience or best medical judgment. The Biden administration likely will revoke these protections that help medical providers to offer services according to their conscience.
As the Biden presidency continues, the first year may feel like the ninth year of the Obama administration, with some apparent key differences. Another significant change in the past four years has been Trump’s appointment of three new justices Neil Gorsuch, Bret Kavanagh, and Amy Comey-Barrett to the Supreme Court.
For those who are concerned about the implications of Biden’s executive orders and narrow Democrat majorities in Congress, the Supreme Court may represent the best defence against two years of one-party control. The first few months of the Biden administration will be focused on COVID-19 and the economy. But Harris is certain to face scrutiny — and pressure — from advocates to ensure the perspectives of Black and brown Americans are reflected in those policies and the Biden White House’s priorities. The current administration must chart its own course, proceeding with care to avert any similarity to Obama’s ninth year.
Y. Sam

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