Speed Reads

Biden's joint address

Biden attempts 'to put a dagger in the Reagan era' by arguing 'trickle-down economics has never worked'

In what The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein called a "repudiation" of generations of conservative tax policy, President Biden pointedly asserted Wednesday night that "trickle-down economics has never worked." Biden's critique of supply-side economics, delivered in his first address to a joint session of Congress, was "an attempt to put a dagger in the Reagan era," NBC News' Sahil Kapur writes.

The trickle-down theory, heavily associated with former President Ronald Reagan's economic policies, posits that tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy will help stimulate the economy and eventually lead to prosperity for the rest of society.

Biden, who voted for Reagan's tax cuts when he was in the Senate, made the comment after noting that many billionaires in America saw their net worth shoot up during the coronavirus pandemic, while 20 million "working and middle class" Americans lost their jobs. Tim O'Donnell