Trump did not specify what parts of Biden’s economic plans were plagiarized.
Biden’s “Build Back Better” economic plan features a “Buy American” component that would invest $400 billion in government procurement that the campaign says would boost demand for U.S.-made products. The plan also calls for a $300 billion investment in research and development over four years that would be spread across the country to businesses and entrepreneurs.
Biden also repeated his desire to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, following GOP legislation that lowered the rate to 21 percent in 2017.
The Biden campaign responded to Trump’s comments by saying Biden’s plan is the antithesis of the president’s economic policies.
“The truth is, Trump promised voters he’d stand with American workers, but spent his entire time in office siding with corporate boardrooms and his big money donors over middle class families – creating giant new financial rewards for outsourcing jobs and trying to take healthcare away from millions,” Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement to POLITICO. “His presidency has thrown American manufacturing into a recession, killed tens of millions of jobs, and sent the strong economy he inherited from the Obama-Biden Administration into a full-on meltdown.”
Under Trump’s presidency, unemployment rates had reached record lows before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States in March 2020.
During the 2016 campaign and his time in office, Trump has pushed an “America First” agenda. Trump pledged to slash outsourcing, renegotiate NAFTA, cut taxes and regulations and bring back American manufacturing.
While a major focus of Trump’s economic policies are what he labels unfair trade deals, Biden’s campaign said his proposals instead center on domestic investment and job creation.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway claimed Biden’s “Buy American” focus was copied from Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“And now yesterday, for all to see, [Biden] was plagiarizing Donald Trump, ‘Buy American,’” Conway told reporters outside the White House. “He recognizes that ‘Buy American’ is very popular. I hope they didn’t spend a dollar on focus-grouping that since we already know it’s how this president got elected.”
On a press call touting Biden’s economic plan, former Congressman and 2020 presidential contender Beto O’Rourke said Trump’s criticism of Biden’s plan should be ignored.
“The president traffics in lies and fear. He’s trying to scare people,” The former Texas congressman said. “They’ll use phrases like ‘far left’ or ‘socialism’ to describe anything that the vice president does, no matter how far it is from socialism. “
Before the press call, the Trump campaign slammed O’Rourke and again labeled Biden’s economic platform as out of the mainstream.
“As Joe Biden hides in his basement bunker, he’s betting on Beto O’Rourke to make the case for his radical economic plan,” Trump Victory spokesperson Samantha Cotten said in a statement. “Make no mistake about it, Joe Biden’s policies are out-of-step with Texas and will decimate the state’s economy.”
