President Biden is looking to end trickle-down economics

As President Biden gears up to sell his new infrastructure plan, Democrats are finally calling out Republican hypocrisy on government spending. The GOP, they note, supported Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — which greatly expanded the national debt — but now refuse to back his stimulus bills.

“When the federal budget is saving people’s lives,” Biden said on March 25, “(Republicans) don’t think (spending is) such a good idea.” The COVID19 pandemic has claimed more than 550,000 lives, shattered the nation’s economy and shifted Americans’ views about what they want from the federal government. As a result, recent polling has shown record levels of support for a progressive economic agenda to make the economy work for those struggling the most, with voters rejecting the kind of smallgovernment ideas that left us so vulnerable in the first place.

As a pollster at Navigator Research, I’ve been tracking this shift first-hand. Never before have I seen such widespread, bipartisan support for previously radical ideas like universal child care, taxing the rich and comprehensive paid leave.

Republicans have long relied on arguments against government spending — and during the last major economic crisis, it worked for them. In February 2009, 45% of Americans opposed President Obama’s Recovery Act, and he faced attacks from all sides about austerity and government bailouts.

But the pandemic has shifted this conventional wisdom by showing the limits of “small government” thinking.