Joe Biden’s decades in the U.S. Senate and eight years in the White House as Barack Obama’s vice president have left him desperately trying to rediscover his working-class roots. “Lunchbox Joe” hasn’t a clue what life is like for working families in Ohio.
There is no other way to explain his most recent out-of-touch comments on the economy.
“The God awful tax cut has not helped anybody who’s real, anybody out there breaking their neck trying to figure out how to make the next meal,” Biden said at a fundraiser last week.
The former vice president’s remark closely echoes his comments during his presidential campaign kickoff in April, when he insisted that the tax cuts “went to folks at the top and corporations.”
“There’s a $2 trillion tax cut last year,” he said in front of an audience of union workers. “Did you feel it? Did you get anything from it? Of course not.”
Hate to break it to you, Joe, but about 80 percent of taxpayers did get something from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).
In fact, Americans actually saved about $1,400 on average on their federal taxes in 2018. Now, Washington, D.C. Joe might think nothing of blowing $1,400 on a bottle of wine, but that’s real money to a family on a budget.
The average Ohio taxpayer saved just over $1,000 last year thanks to the TCJA, representing a 12.7 percent decrease in their federal income taxes. Over the course of a decade, the typical individual can also expect to receive an additional $17,404 in take-home pay, a figure that rises to $30,630 for a family of four.
That’s even more significant than it sounds, because the tax cuts have also boosted economic growth and unleashed private-sector job creation, slashing the unemployment rate and producing wage gains for workers.
The TCJA has allowed businesses throughout Ohio to award sizable bonuses to their employees — often in the range of $1,000 or more — while also increasing benefits, investing in new facilities, and hiring new workers.
Small businesses benefited especially from the president’s tax cuts, which not only lowered their tax rates, but also made it easier for them to make capital investments. At the same time, the 320 “Opportunity Zones” created by the TCJA have established incentives for investors to help revitalize small and medium-sized towns across the state, driving a surge of optimism among small business owners.
The full list of tax cut-related bonuses, investments, and expansions in Ohio goes on and on. Contrary to what the delusional Joe Biden thinks, these were real businesses giving out real bonuses to real Ohio workers.
President Trump’s tax cuts have also contributed to an economic boom that is creating even more jobs in the Buckeye State. This month alone, the consulting firm Traction on Demand announced that it would be adding 80 new jobs in Dayton, and healthcare technology company AssureCare is slated to add 100 new jobs in the Greater Cincinnati area.
Let’s be honest, candidate Joe Biden can’t admit that working families benefited from the president’s middle-class tax cuts. But Lunchbox Joe surely knows the truth.
