During his campaign kickoff rally in Pittsburgh, former Vice President Joe Biden railed against the GOP-led tax cuts enacted in December 2017. Biden said the benefits from the tax cuts went to corporations and CEOs, rather than middle- and working-class employees.
“Let me say this simply and clearly, and I mean this: The country wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers, CEOs, and hedge fund managers, it was built by you. It was built by the great American middle class,” Biden told a thunderous western Pennsylvania audience.
“The middle class is hurting. It’s hurting now. Fifty-three percent of the folks in America don’t think their children are going to have the same standard of living they had. To the best of my knowledge, that’s the first time that’s happened in a long, long, long time. The stock market is roaring, but you don’t feel it. There’s a $2 trillion tax cut last year. Did you feel it? Did you get anything from it?” he asked the crowd. “Of course not. Of course not. All of it went to folks at the top and corporations that pay no taxes. “
[Opinion: Biden plays for the working man in Pittsburgh]
The event marked Biden’s first campaign since announcing his candidacy by video last Thursday. Biden served as President Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years, after 36 years in the Senate.
On Monday he talked up familiar working-class themes.
“I see people understand that being middle class is not a number, it’s a value set. It’s being able to send your kid to a park where you know they’re going to come home safely,” Biden said. “It’s being able to own your own home and not just have to rent. It’s being able to send your kid to a good school, and if they do well, they can go beyond high school, to trade school or college or beyond.”
The New York Times reported most Americans got a tax cut as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, though many Americans incorrectly thought they did not.
