Joe Biden’s presidential campaign on Thursday said that the former vice president views the race as “Park Avenue versus Scranton,” as the campaign sought to contrast the Democratic nominee’s position on taxes with President Trump’s.
“Joe Biden sees this election as Park Avenue versus Scranton,” Kate Beddingfield, deputy campaign manager and communications director for the Biden campaign, said on a call with reporters. “We’ve got a president in Donald Trump who can only see as far on Wall Street and who looks down on working people.”
Biden is participating in a CNN town hall in the Scranton area, his birthplace, on Thursday evening.
The Biden campaign said the former vice president plans to raise taxes on high-income people and corporations, wouldn’t raise taxes on those making less than $400,000, and would create and expand tax credits for low- and middle-income families.
In contrast, the campaign argued that Trump’s 2017 tax law has benefited corporations and foreign investors. Additionally, the campaign criticized Trump for saying in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo last month that he wants to cut the capital gains tax rate to 15 percent if he is reelected.
Biden campaign policy director Stef Feldman said Biden’s first priority as president would be to get the coronavirus outbreak under control, and the timing of other priorities will depend on the state of the virus and economy.
“Vice President Biden’s first agenda is to get this virus under control and pull our economy out of this recession,” Feldman said.
She added that it’s “too hard at this point to sequence” agenda items beyond that given that the economic situation in January is unknown.
“The vice president will assess the economic situation in January and then make strategic decisions in order to make sure that we are growing this economy and investing in our working families,” Feldman said.
Democrats are starting to discuss their plans for next year. Senate Democrats have indicated that they’re unlikely to move immediately on stand-alone tax legislation, instead focusing on spending to create jobs and a plan to control the pandemic.
During an interview last week, CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Biden if he’d wait to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations until unemployment goes down. Biden replied that he’d “make the changes on the corporate taxes on day one.”
Feldman said that Biden’s remarks were aimed at pushing back on the idea that the U.S. doesn’t have the ability to raise revenue to help the middle class.
“What the vice president was being clear about is the fact that he has no patience for people who say that we do not have the capacity to make sure that the super wealthy and corporations pay their fair share in order to make the investments we need in working families,” she said.
When asked if Biden is open to borrowing money to finance his priorities, Feldman also said that Biden intends to pay for his long-term spending plans — such as in infrastructure, education and health care — through tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.