Biden portrays the next phase of the economic agenda as a lifeline for the middle class
President Biden used his State of the Union address Thursday to remind Americans of his efforts to guide the nation’s economy out of a pandemic recession and to lay the groundwork for a second term aimed at making the economy by increasing taxes on businesses and corporations. the wealthy while taking steps to lower costs for the middle class.
Mr. Biden introduced a series of policies aimed squarely at the middle class, including efforts to make housing more affordable for first-time homebuyers. The president used his speech to try to differentiate his economic proposals from those of Republicans, including former President Donald J. Trump. Those proposals largely focused on cutting taxes, rolling back the Biden administration’s investments in clean energy and gutting the Internal Revenue Service.
Many of Biden’s policy proposals require action from Congress and depend on Democrats gaining control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. However, the president also unveiled plans to direct federal agencies to use their powers to lower costs on expensive items like housing, at a time when the lingering effects of inflation continue to weigh on economic sentiment.
From taxes and housing to inflation and consumer protection, Mr. Biden had his eye on pocketbook issues.
Raising taxes on the rich
Many of the tax cuts that Mr. Trump signed into law in 2017 are set to expire next year, making tax policy among the most critical issues on the ballot this year.
On Thursday night, Biden built on many of the tax proposals he has promoted over the past three years, calling on big corporations and the wealthiest Americans to pay more. He proposed raising a new minimum tax on corporations from 15 to 21 percent and proposed a new 25 percent minimum tax rate for billionaires, which he said would raise $500 billion over ten years.
Mr. Biden criticized the cost of the 2017 tax cuts, asking, “Do you really think the rich and big corporations need another $2 trillion in tax breaks?”
Help for the housing market
High interest rates have made housing unaffordable for many Americans, and Mr. Biden called for a mix of measures to help ease those costs. That included tax breaks and mortgage assistance for first-time homebuyers and new incentives to encourage the construction and renovation of affordable housing.
Mr. Biden called on Congress to make certain first-time buyers eligible for a $10,000 credit, and to make some “first-generation” homebuyers eligible for up to $25,000 as a down payment.
The president also unveiled new subsidies and incentives to encourage the construction of affordable housing. He also said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would pursue new rules to address the “competitive” closing costs that lenders impose on buyers and sellers, and called for greater oversight of landlords who collude to raise rents and include hidden fees in leases to stop.
Protecting consumers against “shrinkflation”
There is only so much a president can do to curb rapid inflation, but Mr. Biden used his comments to take aim at his favorite new bogeyman: contraction inflation.
“Same size bag, put fewer chips in it,” Mr. Biden said. He called on lawmakers to pass legislation to end the corporate practice of reducing the size of products without lowering their price tag.
The president also touted his efforts to reduce late credit card fees and “junk” fees and to eliminate surprise fees for online ticket sales, claiming he saved Americans billions of dollars through various forms of price gouging.
American building and buying
One of the mysteries preoccupying Mr. Biden’s advisers is why he is not getting enough credit for key pieces of legislation passed in the past three years.
The president moved through these achievements, reminding his audience of the construction of new roads and bridges and investments in microchip development and clean energy production.
Biden went off script and chided Republicans for voting against some of those policies while reaping the benefits of investments in their states.
Tackling China
As president, Mr. Biden has prioritized stabilizing America’s economic relationship with China while seeking to reduce the United States’ dependence on Chinese products. Mr. Biden took aim at Mr. Trump, saying that while the former president portrayed himself as tough on China, the Biden administration’s policies had a bigger impact on narrowing the bilateral trade deficit and boosting U.S. economic growth.
The president added that his administration stood against China’s unfair trade practices and kept the export of sensitive U.S. technology away from the Chinese military. He said Republicans who say the U.S. is going after China were wrong.
“America is rising,” Biden said. “We have the best economy in the world.”