Among President Joe Biden’s many swings at Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans in Thursday’s State of the Union address, Americans should relisten to his full-throated defense of his progressive economic agenda. While polls show voters trust Republicans more on the economy, the truth is Biden and his administration are most concerned about helping our wallets — unless, that is, your definition of a healthy financial environment is one in which the rich benefit and everyone else makes do with mere scraps.
Biden’s fight with Trump and the Republicans over all of our bottom lines acknowledges two truths: Not only has decades of trickle-down economics failed us, but a growing economy needs a financially healthy middle class. To achieve that security, most of us need a helping hand, whether through a subsidy or government policy and regulation. This agenda is enormously popular with the American people. It’s Donald Trump and Republicans who stand in the way of goals that even their own base often favors.
As Biden pointed out in his address, “Wall Street didn’t build America.” But that doesn’t stop Republican politicians from letting it effectively dictate policy.
As Biden pointed out in his address, “Wall Street didn’t build America.” But that doesn’t stop Republican politicians from letting it effectively dictate policy on everything from taxes to health care. This is how we got the Trump-era tax cuts, which showered benefits on the 1 percent and the largest and most powerful corporations. Biden wants to fix this imbalance: On Thursday, he proposed increasing the corporate tax rate to 21 percent and instituting a minimum 25 percent tax on billionaires. This would go not just a long way toward tackling budget deficits but would give us the funds to properly invest in education, health care and housing.
The business lobby’s control over the GOP is also why people in United States pay multiples more for prescription drugs than any other country, a…
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