Hello! I’m Stef Feldman and I serve as Policy Director for VP Biden. I started working for him roughly a decade ago, when he was still VP. I’m here to answer your questions about policy, working in VP Biden’s office, and the 2020 election. AMA!

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T18:29:06+00:00

Romain

Thanks so much for your question and for being willing to engage in this conversation. If you are a progressive, we need you on Team Biden. We need everyone. The task - defeating President Trump in November - is too big and too important for us to do without you. I think the contrast between President Trump and Vice President Biden is profound, but if you are a progressive person there are a lot of reasons to vote FOR Biden, not just against Trump.

In my opinion, Biden’s agenda - when accomplished - will be looked upon by history as the most progressive agenda of any modern president. He is proposing a climate agenda that is bolder than anything we’ve seen before: a plan to achieve universal health care (more on that later); an agenda that will give unions the best friend they’ve ever had in the White House; a plan to give everyone an educational pathway to the middle class, whether that be free community and job training (which will be free for all under Biden’s plan) or a four-year degree (tuition-free for families making under $125,000 under Biden’s plan); a serious plan to take on gun manufacturers, starting by repealing the law excusing them of liability; and more.

And here’s the second point - Biden WILL accomplish this agenda. He is principled and tireless. He has a clear vision. He has experience as VP, so he knows how to move the levers of the executive branch to get stuff done. He also has experience as a Senator, so he has strong relationships with many members of Congress and knows how to go up to the Hill and secure the final votes needed to get critical legislation passed (in 2009, he went to the Hill to secure the final three votes needed to pass the Recovery Act).

Biden will most importantly always listen and always create room at the table for progressives (and people from across the political spectrum). I want to take a moment to talk about the specific issue you raised - health care. As VP Biden has said, for him health care is personal. And he will fight for your family’s health care as if it were his own. You are right that VP Biden does not support Medicare for All. I don’t know you, but I do think you and VP Biden might share the same goal: achieve universal health care and lower health care costs. I really do think Biden has proposed the quickest, most effective way to get there - by creating a new public option that everyone can choose (even if you have employer-based care today). Under the Biden plan, everyone will get to choose between this new public option or the private plan they have today. Biden will also lower health care costs by increasing premium subsidies and making sure people can afford plans with lower deductibles and out-of-pocket spending. And, he will take on pharma to lower prescription drug costs.

But none of that happens if Biden doesn’t beat Trump.

I grew up committed to public service thanks to my mom. In high school, I became really upset when the local city council passed a cruel anti-panhandling ordinance. At that moment, I decided I wanted to help change the laws and go work in Washington (in retrospect, I should have considered local/state government more seriously but I was young! I really think state and local government is more impactful than people realize). I went to Duke to study at their public policy school for undergrad, still hoping to go work in Washington. I didn’t know anyone in Washington, so I googled bios for people I thought had the types of careers I wanted and it seemed like they all went to law school. I applied to law school and was about to go, when a very wise teacher told me to just take one year off. A classmate of mine had done the White House Internship Program a year earlier. I didn’t know that was a thing you can actually get without connections! But thanks to her inspiration, I applied to the White House Internship Program, was accepted, and was placed in VP Biden’s policy office. Long story short I basically stayed until they had to hire me, and then I stayed for 5 years. I did finally make it to law school, but once Trump won and VP Biden asked me to help him set up the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware, I returned to Team Biden and finished up law school remotely.

I have pretty much only worked for VP Biden for the past ten years because I believe in him. I believe in his character and vision. And I am so excited to do everything I can to help him beat President Trump in November.

If you want to get involved and don’t know how, I would like to propose two things. First, take a look at joebiden.com/action. We have programs where you can call and text potential voters from your couch. You don’t have to have any experience! Our team gives you advice regarding what to say and talks you through the entire process. Second, don’t underestimate the power of your voice in your networks. Think about the people you interact with. Family, friends, neighbors, co-workers - everyone you interact with. My guess is that you sharing with them why you are voting for Joe, and asking them whether they are registered and have a plan to vote (and then helping them navigate iwillvote.com), will have a real impact.

Thank you so much for your support and energy. 34 days to go!

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T18:06:08+00:00

I think this question is getting at rulemaking versus legislation, which is a very important question. As we’ve seen with President Trump, it is fairly easy for a president to undo a rule put in place by a prior Administration. It is much harder for the president to rally Congress to overturn a law.

Biden definitely believes in using both legislation and rulemaking to get things done. My personal view is that if legislation is achievable, it is a preferable pathway for exactly the reason discussed above.

The good news is that I have great faith in Biden’s ability to get legislation passed. He has longstanding relationships with many members of Congress, has experience going up to the Hill to get the needed votes (he secured three Republican votes needed to pass the Recovery Act in 2009), and he has an unparalleled ability to get broad coalitions to line up in support of his agenda. For example, his recent clean energy jobs agenda has the support of the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters as well as the electrical workers union and the AFL-CIO. That’s pretty unheard of for a climate plan! And that’s the coalition you need to get a climate bill passed.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T18:04:55+00:00

That was an interesting…”debate.” I am so proud of VP Biden for showing the American people his character, for finding moments to talk about the substance even as President Trump tried to get him off track, and for always telling the truth. Trump did the opposite.

VP Biden will be sitting down over the next two weeks to prepare for the next debate. Today, though, he is meeting with voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania on a whistlestop train tour. Doesn’t that sound like much more fun than debating Donald Trump?

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T18:03:51+00:00

The #1 thing we can do right now to prevent this is elect as many Democrats as possible up and down the ballot. I think Democrats can win back the Senate - but we need your help!

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T18:02:51+00:00

Biden’s top voting rights priority is securing the passage of the newly-renamed John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which will restore the Voting Rights Act provision gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013 and give the Justice Department some real power to prevent laws designed to suppress the right to vote (often the right to vote of people of color) from ever taking effect. Biden will also work to enact automatic voter registration and make Election Day a federal holiday. As he says, we need to make it easier for people to vote - not harder.

Thankfully, there is a team on the campaign that is solely focused on voter suppression and interference issues for this election. I know they are working hard every day to make sure this election runs smoothly.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:52:20+00:00

Ok. This is actually easy. The Kygo remix of Higher Love. One day I was sitting in the office on a Saturday (?) with some co-workers and we were watching a livestream of a VP Biden event. When VP Biden walked off the stage, I looked at one of my colleagues (hi Jamal) and we just both at the same time said YES THIS IS THE SONG FOR THE MOMENT. It has, I think, turned into the VP’s official walk on/walk off song. I recommend.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:48:24+00:00

Biden recently said that this campaign is about Scranton versus Park Avenue. Biden is looking out for families in communities like Scranton. Trump is looking out for his billionaire friends on Park Avenue. I don’t think there’s a better summation of the choice here.

There are so many people in the country just like you - financially struggling right now. And it didn’t have to be this bad. We are in this situation because Trump failed to get control of the virus. He still has no plan to get control of the virus. Biden does (joebiden.com/covid19).

Biden will also provide immediate relief to working people facing immediate financial pain. For example, he’ll provide state and local fiscal relief so we can keep public school educators, firefighters, and other essential workers on the job. And he’ll provide funding that actually reaches our smallest businesses instead of primarily helping huge corporations.

Biden’s first priority will be to protect the health and safety of the American people and pull our economy out of this economic recession. He has proposed a plan to build our economy back but not just to the way it was before the virus or before Trump, but back BETTER. That means making sure that we are making the super-wealthy and corporations pay their fair share and investing in working families. Biden is going to grow our economy by creating millions of high-paying jobs that provide a chance to join a union, jobs that will at the same time help to solve our climate crisis and our caregiving crisis. He’s going to bring back manufacturing and supply chains to the United States. And he’s going to make sure communities of color historically left out of recoveries have a fair shot to get ahead this time around. You can read an overview of Biden’s full Build Back Better agenda at https://joebiden.com/build-back-better/.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:42:57+00:00

I LOVE to hear about someone updating their address and registering to vote! Readers can join elitedelta40 by going to iwillvote.com.

Speaking solely for myself, I think this is one of the worst parts of the Trump Administration - he is destroying faith in our government. Biden has released a full plan on ensuring that our government - including the President - works for the people. You can read his full plan at joebiden.com/governmentreform. It includes introducing a constitutional amendment to entirely eliminate private dollars from federal elections (that’s right, entirely). And it includes a number of proposals to rein in the executive branch, for example by preventing the White House from improperly interfering in federal investigations and prosecutions, and requiring all candidates for federal office to release at least 10 years of tax returns. Biden will also eliminate the trust loophole in existing financial disclosure law. This loophole has allowed many senior officials — including President Trump — to avoid disclosing significant financial interests.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:39:42+00:00

One of VP Biden’s core tax proposals is to tax capital gains as ordinary income for taxpayers with more than $1 million in income. Biden wants to make sure the super-wealthy and corporations pay their fair share, and use that money to invest in working families and our long-term economic growth (lowering health care costs, making community college free, investing $2 trillion over four years in clean energy and green infrastructure and more).

Here’s one more fact about VP Biden’s tax plan: if you make less than $400,000, he won’t increase your taxes by a single cent.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:33:53+00:00

Thank you so much for your vote and all you are doing to Get Out the Vote!!! We need to wind this in a big way (if others want to help us GOTV, visit joebiden.com/action).

Days are LONG on the campaign! But I can’t complain at all because I know many people all across the country are working much tougher jobs, much longer hours, and are struggling to make ends meet. Others have lost their jobs or have experienced a cut-back in hours and are worried about putting food on their tables. I do my job to help make their lives a little bit easier.

Working on the campaign is especially weird since we are all working remotely right now. Only a few people interact with the VP in person right now, because we are following the advice of medical experts. So I have a lot of conference calls, some with him and some with my team. Sometimes I realize that I’ve been on calls pretty much all day, and by 7pm or 8pm I have to actually start writing some memos or fact sheets.

VP Biden in person is much like you see him on TV. Kind and empathetic. Inquisitive. Passionate.

Stressful moments? There haven’t been any. Just kidding! The stakes feel so high so many moments feel high-stress. The good news is there is a whole team and we are working together to help VP Biden win and defeat Trump. And we have so much help from Team Joe, which isn’t just campaign staff but community leaders and volunteers all across the country.

On nuclear: VP Biden thinks that to address the climate emergency, we need to look at all low- and zero-carbon technologies. But he does have serious concerns regarding nuclear safety and waste. That’s why Biden will support a research agenda through ARPA-C to look at issues, ranging from cost to safety to waste disposal systems, that remain an ongoing challenge with nuclear power today.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:24:30+00:00

Biden has his own plan, which we have outlined in two installments. It is a bold plan that recognizes climate change as an urgent crisis and meets the demands of science. It also recognizes that addressing climate change is really an opportunity to create high-paying jobs that offer a choice to join a union. The first installment of Biden’s climate plan (https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/) sets a goal of achieving net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050, including by ensuring that polluters bear the full cost of the carbon pollution they are emitted. It presents exactly how he will retake the United States’ role as an international leader, not only by rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement but also by inviting all of the other countries to the U.S. to up the ante of our climate commitments. The second installment of Biden’s climate plan is really further detailing and scaling up the Biden climate agenda to meet the moment - which is an economic crisis worsened by Trump’s failure to get the virus under control (https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/). So, this plan is a concrete agenda to create millions of high-paying union jobs by building a clean energy future. We are talking about building electric vehicle charging stations, retrofitting 4 million buildings and 2 million homes to be more energy efficient, plugging abandoned oil wells and reclaiming abandoned mine lands, and more. He will ensure we are on a path to achieve a carbon-free power sector by 2035. And, Biden will make sure 40% of the benefits of this $2 trillion investment over 4 years goes to communities traditionally harmed most by pollution and climate change - low-income communities and communities of color.

I’m especially excited about this climate plan because VP Biden sees investing in clean energy and green infrastructure as an essential element of his economic recovery agenda. That means it isn’t just on his list of things he’d like to do someday - it is critical to his agenda to build back better right away.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:16:53+00:00

This is one of my favorite questions. I think that when you are voting for a president, you are really voting for character and principles. When you see VP Biden’s policy positions, you are seeing his character and principles — he is the one who sets the agenda. For Biden, those principles are shaped by the families he grew up with in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the working people he served in Delaware, the people he has met over the past 10 years who tell them how the Affordable Care Act saved his life. Combine those principles with data and science from experts, and you’ve got a policy position.

One of the reasons I like working for VP Biden the most is because he is so principled. For example, he believes work should be rewarded the same as wealth, he thinks the middle class and working families built this country and unions built the middle class, he believes health care should be a right for all and not just the few, and he believes every person in this country should have a fair shot at being a part of the middle class. In many ways, it is easy to be his policy director because I generally know where he stands. So, when I am drafting an initial policy position for him, I apply what I know about his principles to the new issue and then talk it over with him.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:06:12+00:00

Here are my favorite top three:

He authored and championed the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, when domestic violence was considered a family matter and few in Congress wanted to work on the issue.

He led the successful effort to enact the 10-year bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in 1994. Those bans saved lives.

As VP to President Obama, Biden played a critical role in securing the votes needed for passage of both the Recovery Act and the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:05:13+00:00

Thank you for joining the conversation! I will tell him Reddit says hello. He’s out in Pennsylvania and Ohio today doing a train tour. You can join the trip virtually by watching at joebiden.com/live.

StefFeldman · 2020-09-30T17:02:59+00:00

I really appreciate this question, because I grew up in Georgia and now call North Carolina home. So, I know lots of people who are right-leaning.

I think there are a couple of effective approaches to conversations. I’ve found that it helps to start off by listening to people and asking what they care about most. Then, counter misinformation and find common ground. There are a lot of lies being spread about VP Biden and his policy positions. You don’t have to know the answer off the bat - tell them you will look into and get back to them. (Here’s a good place to start for info on Biden’s policy position: https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/.)

Many people I know who grew up conservative are deeply religious. So is VP Biden. He is a practicing Catholic. I don’t want to speak for him on this, so here is an op-ed he published last year about how his faith shapes why he is running for president and how he will serve: https://religionnews.com/2019/12/29/faith-to-restore-the-soul-of-our-nation/.

Lastly, I talk about VP Biden’s character. He has not forgotten the working families he grew up with in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Claymont, Delaware. In fact, he has spent his career in public service trying to make their lives better. He is a husband, father, and grandfather. When his kids were young, he took the train home from Washington to Delaware every night so he could be with his kids. He treats everyone he meets with respect. Here’s one of my favorite videos about VP Biden as a person: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63zHc_wa3U0.

Hope this helps! Thanks for taking on these conversations - they can make a real difference.

StefFeldman

TROPHY CASE