It’s a mistake to pay too much attention to the specific programs advocated by presidential candidates, because the country you campaign to lead is rarely the country you get. George W. Bush didn’t run as the scourge of Saddam and Islamic extremists; Obama didn’t run as the man who would save us from the Great Recession; and Trump obviously didn’t anticipate a pandemic.
The assumption during most of the campaign was that the next president would inherit a country with full employment. Realistically, while the public health crisis will have waned somewhat in January, 2021, the economy will be struggling, and unemployment will be very high. Trump’s nonsensical response to this will be to cut taxes for the wealthy. What will Biden’s plan look like?
I think he will support a fairly conventional stimulus based on two kinds of programs: a massive green infrastructure plan; and a temporary public health initiative that will look in some respects like M4A, but without the cost controls. This will replace the current regime of, essentially, using the government to keep the economy on life support; by January, unlike today, it will be obvious which businesses have a future without perpetual public assistance, and which will not. There will be widespread public support for both initiatives, and they would have a decent chance of getting through the Senate by way of the reconciliation process.