Dec. 10 (UPI) — President Joe Biden‘s economic policies are working despite the pain inflation has caused for consumers, he said Tuesday during a speech delivered at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
“I came to office with a different vision for America that’s been consistent with my record, good, bad or indifferent, since I’ve been a senator,” Biden said, “Grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”
Biden said the past four years has shown his economic “playbook” is working and cited several legislative accomplishments as proof.
They include the infrastructure bill, federal investment in building semiconductors, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and investing in clean energy.
Biden said COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 largely caused the inflation by disrupting supply chains while increasing the cost of energy.
Biden also warned President-elect Donald Trump would enrich the wealthy and harm the middle and lower economic classes with his policies.
Biden said Trump intends to cut taxes and levy tariffs that would weaken the nation’s economy while mostly benefiting the wealthy and undoing policies that he said have strengthened the working class over the past four years.
“The incoming administration is determined to return the country to another round of trickle-down economics,” Biden said, as reported by Politico.
“On top of that, he seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all important goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs rather than the American consumer,” Biden added.
Biden predicted Trump’s policies will cause a loss of jobs and higher inflation for working-class Americans while enriching the wealthy.
Biden’s comments run counter to IRS data showing Trump’s tax cuts during his first term in office mostly benefited the middle class and working class.
During the 40-minute speech, Biden also said Trump did not handle the COVID-19 pandemic well and claimed Trump caused a recession that Biden inherited in 2021.
Biden said Trump intends to renew tax cuts that are scheduled to expire soon, which he said would force cuts to social services while increasing the federal debt.
The House Ways and Means Committee in April reported median household incomes rose by $5,000 and wages rose by 4.9% over the two years following the 2017 tax cuts taking effect.
The committee also reported the nation’s economy grew 1% faster than projected and U.S. companies generally stopped leaving the nation to establish headquarters in other parts of the world.
Despite reports to the contrary, Biden said outcomes of the Nov. 5 general election suggest the nation’s economy will contract under Trump’s second term in office after Biden’s administration invested in infrastructure and manufacturing.
“I know it’s been hard for many Americans to see, and I understand they’re just trying to figure out how to put three squares on the table,” Biden said. “But I believe it was the right thing to do.”
He said he hopes the incoming Trump administration will “preserve and build on this progress, but we’ll all know in time what will happen.”