The one piece of Trump’s legacy that haunts Biden
Biden inflation wasn't enough to hurt ordinary Americans. He just announced he's going to let the Trump tax cuts expire. Biden's had three years already to do it, but did nothing.
President Biden has positioned himself as the anti-Trump. He has worked actively to dismantle former President Donald Trump’s policies and position himself as the opposite of his predecessor in just about every regard. From overturning Trump’s policies on workers' rights to energy to the border, the Biden administration didn’t want to leave anything in place from Trump’s legacy.
Except there is one big piece of Trump’s legislative agenda that has put Biden in a bind: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, aka the Trump tax cuts.
Now, on the campaign trail, Biden is trying to talk tough on taxes and Trump’s cuts. But he has had three-plus years to overturn them and has done nothing. Now, in the thick of the election season, he is willing to declare, "If I’m re-elected, it’s going to stay expired." That's still a risky proposition, given what that means for the bulk of taxpayers.
BIDEN VOWS TO LET TRUMP-ERA TAX CUTS EXPIRE NEXT YEAR, MEANING HIGHER RATES FOR MANY
Here’s why.
It’s no secret that Americans, particularly in the working and middle class, have been absolutely crushed economically under Biden’s administration. Households are struggling to keep up with the effects of brutal inflation. The personal saving rate is down to 3.6% for the first quarter, well below historic averages. Meanwhile, household debt, including credit cards, has reached an all-time high, and delinquencies for several major debt categories are on the rise.
Skyrocketing mortgage rates and housing costs are making it impossible for individuals and families, including first-time buyers, to even find a house to buy, let alone afford the payments.
A survey commissioned by Redfin and conducted by Qualtrics found that half of Americans are struggling to afford their housing payments, whether they own their home or are renting. They noted, "Roughly 1 in 5 people who struggle to afford housing have skipped meals and/or worked extra hours to help cover costs, while about 1 in 6 have delayed medical care."
This is a very different financial scenario than pre-pandemic under the Trump administration. Americans know what their costs are when they go to the grocery store or a restaurant, when they fill up with gas and when they try to make their housing payments, no matter the gaslighting from the Biden administration or its mouthpieces.
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At this point, at least Americans can cling to the 2017 tax cuts still being in place.
As most Americans received some tax cuts from the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, Biden couldn’t afford to overturn those, too. Doing so would mean that Americans would pay more taxes. And with the economic backdrop being absolutely abysmal, Biden has never sought to go there. In that sense, even Biden has benefitted from the tax cuts.
Of course, after the election, being in his second term, Biden has projected his desire to raise taxes. He says he wants to raise taxes on the "wealthy" only, but they never really are just for the wealthy. We have seen the real long-term impacts and "taxes" of inflation and Biden’s other policies on Americans.
Key provisions of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, including the lower individual tax rates, begin to expire at the end of 2025. So, whoever is elected will have to either admit they were a good idea and extend them, let them expire or replace them with some other taxation scheme.
In the meantime, Biden will have to live with the ghost of the tax cuts as that one policy he just couldn’t dismantle.