Hyperbole is rampant in describing Tuesday’s election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden as the “most important election” of one’s lifetime.

With the United States still battling COVID-19, a summer of social justice movements and wildfires engulfing states on the west coast, it’s understood why.

But, in Chautauqua County, several decisions made during a Trump second-term or a Biden presidency will have an effect locally. This article will examine the two candidates’ platform on four issues that pertain to county residents.

STIMULUS PACKAGE

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been working to settle a second coronavirus relief package since the summer. In New York state and in Chautauqua County, municipalities and school districts have been waiting for such relief out of fear that their state aid would be reduced by 20% due to the state’s budget deficit that is hoping to be addressed by some sort of federal aid.

Biden advocated for passing the HEROES Act in his final debate with Trump on Oct. 22, which would supplement the previously passed CARES Act. That bill would provide for an expansion of unemployment and SNAP benefits, increase aid to veterans by 25% and include a second round of $1,200 dollar stimulus checks per individual.

“This HEROES Act has been sitting there and look at what’s happening,” Biden said. “When I was in charge of the Recovery Act (in 2009) with $800 billion dollars I was able to get $145 billion dollars to local communities that have to balance their budgets, to states that have balanced their budgets that then have to fire firefighters, teachers, first responders and law enforcement officers so they can keep their cities and counties running.”

However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican members of the Senate called the bill “dead on arrival,” and have been working the past several weeks to negotiate, along with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, a stimulus package in the range of $1 to $2 trillion. Trump set a limit at $1.8 trillion to which Pelosi would not agree in mid-October.

“The bill that was passed in the House was a bailout of badly run, high crime Democrat, all run by Democrat, cities and states,” Trump responded. “This was a way of taking care of them and spending on things that have nothing to do with COVID. It was a big bailout for badly run cities and states.”

The last coronavirus relief package, the $1.8 trillion bipartisan CARES Act, passed in March by an overwhelming margin as the economy went into lockdown amid fear and uncertainty about the virus. Since then, Trump and many of his GOP allies have focused on loosening social and economic restrictions as the key to recovery instead of more taxpayer-funded help.

COVID-19 RESPONSE

The Western New York region of New York has seen some of the highest infection rates of COVID-19 since the spring in recent weeks. Chautauqua County officials reported this week that 22 individuals had been hospitalized in recent days — the most since the pandemic began. Nationwide, cases have surged past 9 million as infections are on the rise in 47 states.

Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, have claimed, via the campaign website, that they will “listen to science.” Their first priority is to expand access to testing by doubling drive-through testing sites, invest in home tests and instant tests, set up a Pandemic Testing Board similar to the War Production Board during World War II and establish a U.S. Public Health Job Corps that would mobilize 100,000 to perform contact tracing measures.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, have engaged in Operation Warp Speed, which will produce and deliver 300 million doses of safe and effective coronavirus vaccines with the initial doses available by January 2021, according to HHS.gov. Trump also advocated for additional therapeutics during the Oct. 22 debate.

However, in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” that “We’re not going to control the pandemic.” Instead, he too stressed the administration’s push for a vaccine and therapeutics.

Biden, meanwhile has been an advocate for a nationwide mask mandate by working with governors and mayors to do so, based on advice from experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that if 95% of Americans wear masks between now and December that 70,000 lives could be saved.

As of Friday afternoon 228,100 people had died from the novel coronavirus.

HEALTH CARE

Health care will continue to be a focus no matter who comes away victorious on Tuesday or thereafter. Currently, a legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act is due to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this term.

Trump has pushed to remove the ACA since his first year in office, claiming that his repeal of the individual mandate eliminated taxes to those who could not afford federal health insurance. He claims that a replacement plan, that would protect pre-existing conditions, is in the works. He also declared the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency, creating a bipartisan opioid commission that issued 56 recommendations to help defeat the opioid crisis.

If elected, Biden claims that he would implement a health care plan similar to the Affordable Care Act that would allow Americans a public health insurance option similar to Medicare, increase the value of tax credits to lower premiums and extend coverage to the working class and expand coverage. His website also says that he would reform issues within the prescription drug industry.

GUNS

With an abundance of hunting land across Chautauqua County, some gun owners have not taken kindly to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s implementation of The SAFE Act, which aims to, according to the state website, prevent “criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from buying guns, cracks down on illegal guns and bans only the most dangerous assault weapons,” that was passed after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

The SAFE Act requires gun owners to register their firearms but does not restrict residents’ ability to buy, sell, keep or use guns.

Under a Biden presidency, the former Vice President has committed himself toward ending the “gun violence epidemic,” citing a statistic that claims that 40,000 people die as a result of firearm injuries each year.

By doing so, he would ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, reinstate an Obama-era policy to “keep guns out of the hands of certain people unable to manage their affairs for mental reasons,: which he claims Trump reversed, and create an effective program to ensure individuals who become prohibited from possessing firearms relinquish their weapons, among other reforms.

Throughout his presidency, Trump has attempted to be a champion of gun rights and has repeatedly warned supporters at his rallies that Democrats “will take your guns away.” In January, he labeled Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a “whack job” as gun rights advocates protested the Democratic governor’s moves to tighten gun laws in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Virginia Beach.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.