President-elect Joe Biden supports greater broadband access and more funding for rural healthcare, and says he will not immediately remove President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products, according to a column in the New York Times on Wednesday. Columnist Thomas Friedman, who interviewed the former vice president on Tuesday, wrote that Biden insisted rural America would not be left behind during his administration.
“I respect them,” Biden said, referring to rural Americans, and he plans to prove it by “tackling the virus” in “red and blue areas alike,” reported Friedman. Biden also said America must “end the rural healthcare crisis right now by building on Obamacare,” and that “we can boost funding” for rural hospitals and provide higher reimbursement rates for medical services. He also said, “We should be spending $20 billion to put broadband across the board.”
On China, Biden said he would leave in place the U.S. tariffs on about half of Chinese imports and the “phase one” trade agreement while reviewing China policy and consulting with allies in Europe and Asia, wrote Friedman. Biden said his goal “would be to pursue trade policies that actually produce progress on China’s abusive practices — that’s stealing intellectual property, dumping products, illegal subsidies to corporations,” and forcing American businesses to share proprietary technology with Chinese counterparts.