As President Joe Biden visited Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, he called for an increase in taxes on the rich.
“When I look at the economy, I don’t look at it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago,” Biden said during his speech. “I look at it through the eyes of Scranton.”
Biden explained that he wanted to make the tax code fair, in order to allow regular American citizens to keep more money in their pockets.
In an attempt to make the tax code fairer, Biden suggested a 25% minimum tax rate for billionaires, while slamming former President Donald Trump for being a billionaire.
“Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values,” Biden said during his speech. “These are the competing visions for our economy that raise questions of fundamental fairness at the heart of this campaign.”
The upcoming 2024 presidential election will likely determine how much of the tax cuts established by Trump will remain in place, as many provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) are scheduled to expire by the end of 2025. Under the TCJA, individuals saw significant changes in their personal income taxes and estate taxes.
A report by the Tax Foundation found that 1.4 million jobs would be added to the economy by 2025 as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Also included in the TCJA were provisions for small businesses, including a 20 percent pass-through-deduction and immediate expensing. Due to the tax cuts for many small businesses, many business owners were able to provide their employees with an increase in wages and bonuses.
Under the TCJA, wages increased by 4.9 percent in 2018 and 2019, workers in a lower income bracket experienced a 50 percent rise in their wages, and the median household income growth rose by $5,000, according to a report from Way and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO).
While Biden has vowed not to increase taxes on those making less than $400,000, a Biden victory would likely see taxes raised on middle-class Americans.