President Biden harshly attacked former President Donald J. Trump in a tax and economic policy speech in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, portraying his Republican rival as a puppet of plutocrats who have ignored the working class.
During a visit to his hometown of Scranton, a top-fought state that he has visited more often than any other, Mr. Biden laid out his vision for a fairer tax code, including raising tax rates on the rich and corporations and using the money to pay for taxes Expansion of the economy and helping working families.
But in a speech that signaled the Biden campaign’s intention to make the 2024 election a referendum on his polarizing Republican opponent, the president repeatedly turned to Mr. Trump. His jibes at his predecessor targeted the former president’s wealthy upbringing, his friendships with billionaires and his 2017 tax cuts that disproportionately benefited America’s upper class.
“Donald Trump sees the world differently than you and I,” Mr. Biden told a crowd of more than a hundred supporters at a cultural center in Scranton. “He wakes up in the morning in Mar-a-Lago and thinks to himself. How he can help his billionaire friends gain power and control and impose their extreme agenda on the rest of us.”
Aiming to create a clear contrast, Mr. Biden laid out his proposals: expanding the child tax credit. Providing a $10,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers. Increasing the minimum tax rate for billionaires and corporations.
“We know that the best way to build an economy is from the center out and from the bottom up, not from the top down,” Mr. Biden said. “Because if you do that, the poor move up the career ladder, the middle class do well, and the rich still do very well. We are all fine.”
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, denied that Mr. Biden’s plan would benefit Americans.
“President Trump proudly passed the largest tax cuts in history,” she said in a statement. “Joe Biden proposes biggest tax hike ever.”
During his speech, Mr Biden voiced criticism of Mr Trump – including a sharp joke about the falling shares of the former president’s social media company.
“If Trump’s stock in Truth Social — his company — falls even further, he could do better under my tax plan than his,” Mr. Biden said.
The president’s speech kicked off a three-day tour of Pennsylvania, with appearances in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday. The trip came as Mr Trump appeared in court in Manhattan for the second straight day as his first criminal trial began – a flashy split-screen welcome by the Biden campaign.
Since Mr. Biden delivered his State of the Union address last month, his campaign has moved into general election mode after a much quieter start to the year. In the last few weeks he has visited all the important contested states. His campaign, in coordination with state Democratic parties, has opened more than 100 field offices across the country, spent $30 million on an advertising push and gained a significant fundraising advantage over Mr. Trump. A court decision in Arizona upholding a near-total 1864 ban on abortion has also energized Democrats.
As a result of these efforts, Mr. Biden’s poor poll numbers have improved. A New York Times-Siena College poll this month showed he had nearly wiped out Mr. Trump’s national lead. The president was five percentage points behind Mr. Trump in the previous poll. Much of Mr. Biden’s recovery was due to his improved standing among traditional Democratic voters, a sign that his campaign’s messaging efforts may be having an impact.
Still, Mr. Biden faces an uphill battle in convincing Americans that he is a better steward of the country’s economy than Mr. Trump. In the most recent Times/Siena poll, 64 percent of voters said they approved of the way Mr. Trump has handled the economy during his time in office. Only 34 percent said the same about Mr. Biden, according to the poll.
The tax cuts that Mr. Trump signed into law in 2017 proved unpopular with voters. And while they increased investment in the U.S. economy and gave workers a modest wage increase, they fell short of Republican promises and significantly increased the national debt, an academic study found. Many parts of these tax cuts expire next year.
Mr. Biden promised in his speech that no one earning less than $400,000 would see a tax increase under his plan.
“I hope you can make $400,000,” he told the crowd. “I never did.”
As Mr. Biden spoke, Mr. Trump sat in a Manhattan courtroom about two hours away, watching the selection of the first jury in his trial. Mr. Biden has generally refrained from mentioning the charges against Mr. Trump in four criminal cases, but his campaign trolled the former president on social media for appearing to fall asleep during Monday’s proceedings.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, did not respond to a question about whether Mr. Biden was watching or briefed on the Trump trial.
“His focus is on the American people,” she said during a briefing with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Scranton.
But even in his hometown, Mr. Biden could not escape the anger that many Democrats feel over his support of Israel during its Gaza war. As Mr. Biden climbed the steps of his childhood home, a crowd of roadside protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted “Genocide Joe must go” over a loudspeaker.
Mr. Biden will speak at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers union in Pittsburgh on Wednesday before visiting Philadelphia on Thursday. He narrowly defeated Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020, and the win in the state is crucial to his re-election strategy.
Democratic allies of Mr. Biden said they believed his economic justice message would resonate in Pennsylvania.
“Scranton versus Fifth Avenue was one of the most successful campaigns of the 2020 campaign,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, referring to the Trump Tower location in Manhattan. “You’ll see more of that in this campaign.”
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2024-04-16 22:21:04
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