WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden will inherit a vulnerable economic recovery under threat from a resurgent virus, likely with a divided Congress that will hinder his ability to address the challenges.
Yet despite the obstacles, the former vice president and senator will pursue a drastic shift in America’s economic policy. He has vowed to reverse much of the Trump administration’s aggressive deregulation and indifference to domestic spending and economic development in favor of big investments in education, infrastructure and clean energy. He wants stricter rules to rein in big tech companies and to fight climate change.
And to help pay for it all, the president-elect would turn to large tax increases for corporations and wealthy individuals by reversing much of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.
Biden is already distinguishing himself from Trump in his approach to the pandemic, which economists generally see as the gravest threat to the recovery. Trump saw the pandemic’s impact on the economy through the lens of government-mandated shutdowns: He argued that to fight the pandemic by imposing curbs on face-to-face businesses like restaurants – the approach favored by most health experts – was to doom the economy. Yet even when states reopened, many consumers stayed cautious about dining out, going to movies or flying.
“It wasn’t all about shutdowns – it was about people getting scared,” said Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist. “I imagine people are getting scared again.”