Biden champions populist tax plan in Scranton, criticizes Trump’s ties to billionaires

President Joe Biden repeatedly lambasted former President Donald Trump over his tax policies during a campaign stop at his childhood hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday afternoon.

The speech sought to contrast Biden’s middle-class hometown of Scranton with Trump’s ritzy Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, his inheritance, and his friendliness with the billionaire class.

Biden’s three-day swing in the key battleground state coincides with Trump’s New York criminal case. The former president is required to spend four out of five work days in court while Biden is holding campaign rallies.

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During the speech, Biden touted his plan to raise taxes for the highest earners in the United States if he is reelected president and firmly rejected Trump’s embrace of trickle-down economics.

“My plan calls for a minimum federal income tax of 25%, just 25%, on billionaires, well below the top rate,” Biden said. “You know how much money that would raise? That would raise $500 billion over the next 10 years.”

He later argued that the middle class would not see increased federal taxes under his 2025 budget proposal. “We’re not asking anything that’s unusual. Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 will pay an additional penny in federal taxes,” Biden said. “Not one penny.”

Biden then repeated a joke at his rival’s expense. “If Trump’s stock in the Truth Social, his company, dropped any lower, he might do better under my tax plan than his,” the president said. “It’s possible.”

The tax-the-rich pitch is meant to weaken Trump’s populist appeal ahead of the November general election.

Biden continued to slam Trump for supporting policies that allegedly hurt the middle class, saying Trump would lower billionaires’ tax bills by repealing the Affordable Care Act.

“Trump says his MAGA friends want to, quote, ‘terminate’ — I love his terminology, ‘terminate’ — the Affordable Care Act,” Biden said. “That would mean over 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions who now have healthcare because of the Affordable Care Act would lose their coverage.”

The president said Trump wouldn’t stop at the healthcare law. “Folks, he’s coming for your money, your healthcare, and your Social Security, and we’re not going to let it happen,” Biden warned.

He argued that he would expand the child tax credit, which Congress allowed to expire at the end of 2021. The child tax credit reduced the child poverty rate to its lowest during the COVID-19 pandemic, but child poverty rates doubled after it wasn’t expanded.

“I want to restore it. Restore the expanded child care tax credit because no child should live in poverty in this country,” Biden said.

Biden also excoriated Trump over his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowered the corporate tax rate. Biden has previously stated that he hopes to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%, up from 21%.

“It’s time to raise the corporate tax, minimum tax, to at least 21% so every big corporation finally has to pay their fair share,” Biden said. “But you know Trump and his MAGA friends want to get rid of the corporate minimum tax.”

Biden has faced opposition from the Republican Party and some of his party members in implementing some of his biggest tax policy proposals. Many of those proposals will never make it to his desk while Republicans control the House.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley slammed Biden’s Scranton visit in a statement mere moments before Biden took to the stage.

“As Joe Biden visits the Keystone State today, Pennsylvanians are struggling because of Bidenomics,” Whatley said. “Pennsylvania families are suffering from historic inflation, unaffordable gas prices, and record high housing costs. It’s no wonder why Pennsylvanians will vote to make America affordable again and elect President Trump in November.”

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This will be the eighth visit to Pennsylvania from either Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. Pennsylvania is one of the seven battleground states Biden hopes to win in his battle for a second presidential term.

Biden retook the state in 2020 by less than 100,000 votes after Trump won it in 2016. In the 2024 race, his campaign is leaving little to chance and constantly visiting the Keystone State.

The president will continue on to Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning, and he will later hold a rally in Philadelphia on Thursday.