Joe Biden repeated a falsehood about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Democrats have uttered so constantly since 2017 that you have to wonder whether Biden was lying or whether he actually believes his own malarkey.
Biden’s line: “Unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefited the top 1% of Americans, the American Rescue Plan helped working people — and left no one behind.”
Biden’s direct implication here is that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did not help working people. That is blatantly, objectively, and 100% false. Biden was probably lying, but it’s also possible that he and all his speechwriters are simply ignorant about what it’s like to be a working person.
The TCJA doubled the standard deduction and doubled the child tax credit, thus zeroing out federal income taxes for tens of thousands of low-income and middle-class people.
The lowest quintile of income earners in the United States saw a 100% tax cut from the bill. That is literally “help[ing] working people.” Every quintile saw significant tax cuts, as the Tax Foundation showed. So, Biden was simply wrong on his central claim, and the data showing he was wrong was available and long known.
Biden’s indirect implication was that the TCJA only helped the 1%. Yes, wealthy people got large tax cuts from a large tax cut, but it actually shifted a greater share of the tax burden to the wealthy. As the Tax Foundation explained, a lot of rich people got tax hikes: “The expansion of the standard deduction, elimination of taxpayer exemptions, and limitations on itemized deductions such as the $10,000 cap on state and local taxes (SALT) tended to reduce the average federal tax rate paid by the bottom 60 percent of households, but raised the average tax rate for the top 40 percent of earners.”
Biden got booed for his false attack on TCJA. Let’s see if he gets fact-checked.
