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

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 29 April 2021

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

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.