Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said that while the recovery of the US economy may be some time off, if elected president in November, the tax policy that he would support would be one which emphasizes the value of work over wealth.

“Look, my tax policy is based on a simple proposition. We should stop rewarding wealth and start rewarding work a little bit. Let’s raise the capital gains tax for people making over a million bucks a year to ordinary income. Let’s reverse the Trump tax cut,” Biden said, referring to the major tax reform legislation approved by Donald Trump and his Republican allies in 2017 which provided tax cuts tilted to the wealthy. “Imagine if we had that $2 trillion now as we go into, God-willing, recovery, which is a long way away, as I see it right now, which they used to buy back hundreds of billions of dollars of stock, tens of billions of dollars to boost wages for their workers. Did they do that? No. Let’s use the money to invest in the middle class.

“You know, almost 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment. And you know what the White House is proposing? More tax cuts for corporate America. I’ve got a novel idea. How about some relief for Main Street? And this entire recovery program, this entire stimulus has been passed, several trillion dollars, what was it — what was it done for? To keep people employed. To keep people employed,” Biden added. “And what’s the president done? Fired an inspector general, the vast majority of the money’s gone to the very wealthy and the major corporations, not a single penny’s gone on the Main Street fund that was set up, not one penny in the last three months.

“And the [Paycheck Protection Program] — what happens? People are getting locked out. And so, look, I mean, that’s not what it was advertised to do and the American people are getting a little frustrated,” the former vice president said, referring to a program Congress recently created to get funds to small businesses to help them survive the current economic downtown but has gotten controversial for funding from the program which went to big business instead.

“They’re getting extremely, extremely frustrated. And you know, the president’s response to all this has cost lives and it’s cost jobs,” Biden said. “What we’re doing now is upside down. The bigger you are, the faster you get the money. The smaller you are, you don’t get the money. And taxes are to build back a better economy, boost it, create a middle class and create jobs, Paycheck Protection Program, healthcare, confidence to come back. Hey, look, I just think he’s got this all backwards, but he doesn’t seem to care much about it.”

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