Biden Seems to Have Forgotten His Own Voting Record in Shameless Bashing of Reagan Policy
President Joe Biden took a substantial swipe at conservative tax policy Wednesday night in his first address to a joint session of Congress.
The speech fell on the eve of Biden’s 100th day in office, but came loaded with remarks lifted right off the pages of the 2020 presidential election — chief among them, the claim that former President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act had done nothing but line the pockets of social elites and Wall Street billionaires.
“When you hear someone say they don’t want to raise taxes on the wealthiest one percent, or corporate America, ask them, ‘Whose taxes you want to raise?'” Biden said.
“Look. The big tax cut of 2017, remember, it was supposed to pay for itself — that was how it was sold — and generate vast economic growth. Instead, it added $2 trillion to the deficit. It was a huge windfall for corporate America.”
The president went on to claim that corporate CEOs had pocketed the majority of their tax savings from 2017 forward, investing little to nothing in increased wages or research and development.
The Trump era restructuring of the tax code, Biden said, had resulted in the largest wealth disparities ever recorded.
“Trickle-down economics has never worked,” he added, parroting the usual progressive rejection of former President Ronald Reagan’s effort to spur on the American economy with lower taxes.
“It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out.”
#JOINTSESSION: President Biden slammed President Trump’s tax cut of 2017 and promoted higher taxes on the very wealthy to pay for new programs. pic.twitter.com/SmlaIjN9vw
— Forbes (@Forbes) April 29, 2021
Of course, these remarks are a far cry from Biden’s previous position on the issue nearest and dearest to the average American.
Early in his decades-long senatorial career, Biden voted for both the 1981 and 1986 tax cuts, all but inventing so-called Reaganomics alongside the Republican icon it is named for.
In fact, according to The Daily Signal, there was almost no Democratic opposition to sweeping tax cuts before they made their way onto the conservative platform permanently.
“Only three Democratic senators voted against the Republican tax reform plan when it passed the Senate on Jun 24, 1986,” The Signal reported at the height of the debate on Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
“12 Democrats voted against the final conference report when it passed the Senate on Sept. 27, 1986, before the legislation was signed into law by Reagan on Oct. 22, 1986.”
Unfortunately, Biden’s Wednesday night rhetoric and early support for oversized spending packages reveals what the politically astute have been arguing since Biden stepped onto the 2020 presidential election stage on April 25, 2019.
The man is a radical. He will govern as a radical.
He was only chosen for his ability to hide that behind kind words and the aura of an elder statesman.
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