Cspan. Org. New york Times Economics and tax reporter joins us now via zoom for the conversation about joe bidens campaign you series of economic plants. The first of which was released last week. The second came yesterday. He first explained the pitch that the Biden Campaign was making would these spending and Economic Investment plans. Thank you so much for having me. Its a pleasure to be here. Which will biden is trying to do is counter President Trump on the economy. President won election in part on the string of a very populous pitch for workers who feel left behind and in the current economy and in particular, biden making lots of appeals to the industrial midwest about manufacturing. The first part of joe bidens new plan that he put out last week its called build better back or build back better. It is an alliteration. A little like a little laugh love of the economy. What the vice, the former Vice President wants to do with that plan is to promote much more of a by american ethos. A look at the government to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more of purchasing American Made products. Hes going to take other steps to make the country to produce more things here so there are more American Manufacturing jobs, which is something that the president s and president ial candidates for a long time have promised. The former Vice President is leaning into it here in an effort to take away some of Donald Trumps industrial midwestern support. 700 billion dollar Investment Plan that came out last week. Followed by yesterday, a two trillion dollar plan, making Climate Change an economic recovery. Dive into that a little bit for us. It is interesting. It is a completely different topic, you might say. As anyone who has paid attention to the way democrats talk about Climate Change over the last decade, knows it is being framed here by biden as a jobs issue. Again, he is talking about making things in america. In this case, electric vehicles overhauling infrastructure. He wants to get america entirely off of fossil fuel production and on to clean energy production. He has a plan to spend two trillion dollars on increasing a bunch of investments in american infrastructure and production and other things, in hopes of creating what he says will beat millions of union jobs in the clean energy sector. But which the president s campaign and others warn would threaten millions of american shops that already exist and fossil fuel. More plans to come in the coming days and weeks. What else are we expecting . He has got to more big speeches we think that will be coming. He has promised that this is going to be a very big plan and i think which each step of the plan we are seeing the Vice President , or former Vice President being able to spend more money. He had the comparatively smallest plan in terms of new federal spending in the democratic primaries, that he is moving more towards the visions of candidates like Elizabeth Warren or cory booker in the way that he is embracing some ideas like potentially a federal guaranteed program for federal workers to expand the federal workforce. Something like the ccc back in th fdr era. Biden, what he is doing is he is certainly nowhere close to the level of spending that Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders had during the primary, but he is signaling willingness to aggressively tax very4;; earners and the wealthy in order to fund what his Campaign Calls investments and lower income, middle class americans. And american competitiveness. Stay on that for a second. We are two out of four plants in and at 2. 7 trillion dollars in proposed spending. Specifically, who is going to be taxed . How much does he expect to race from that . Or else get this money come from . He had in the primaries, a plan just north of three trillion dollars for new tax increases that is obviously growing here now. He is talking about reversing parts of the trump tax cuts that benefited large corporations and the wealthy. He would raise the Corporate Income tax rates, for example, raise taxes on Capital Gains which are largely paid by higher earning investors. I think the campaign has drawn a line in that people, what we consider the upper upper middle class, or truly, even some of the lower rungs of high earners will not see tax increases under his plan. What he is promising as he can do all of this on the backs of the rich and big companies. That is something that democrats in the primary raced to see who could tax the rich more. So there are certainly a lot of proposals that democrats have line around four different ways to tax wall street, or to tax multinational corporations, or to tax very wealthy individuals. It appears that biden is going to be deploying more of those then he said in the primary, that again, nowhere close to a Bernie Sanders level of tax. The Biden Economic plan and economics in general in the camp in 2020 are topic economic and tax report of the New York Times. You can call in. The phone lines are open for questions. To democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. As folks are calling in right now, i would be remiss not to ask about your forthcoming book, the riches of this land, the untold true story of the americas middle class. What are you writing about and why are you writing about it . It is a hopeful story. I spent more than ten years as an economics reporter in washington, basically chasing this question of why does the American Economy not work for the middle class in the way that i think all americans had hoped and expected after the golden era of the decades following world war ii when we pulled millions of people into the middle class and delivered on the american dream. What i found over the course of that reporting, is that the economy has stopped working for everyone, because we stopped breaking down the barriers that exist that were keeping and to keep very talented people from getting ahead. Specifically, what Economic Research and history shows us is there is a group of workers who, when they surged into better opportunities and economy, the entire economy benefited. That includes women, workers of color, immigrants. Empowering them is the key to revitalizing the economy, again both overall for the middle class after several decades, and in particular, coming out of a pandemic recession when we know that black workers and hispanic workers, and women ha getting them back to better opportunities, reducing racism and sexism that has held them back. That is going to help not just those workers, but everybody. It is going to help white workers in ohio where used to work. It is going to help men and women. It is what history shows us. It lifts the entire economy up and i think it is the recipe for another golden era in america. That book, the riches of this land. Some are reading, coming up in august. Derek, from lake lynn, minnesota. You are up. Good morning, america. Good morning cspan. I have a couple of comments. When is, im not complaining about this washington journal i have been watching for 30 years. Having New York Times reporters on, maybe you should probably have a segment with barry weiss talking about a resignation in how the newspapers supposed to be about the first amendments free speech, is not about free speech. It is very bad over there your news room, i will tell you that. Your editors have been sticking up for their employees. I will get on with the economy. Let me just say, do you want to comment about the editorial side of the paper and how much involvement or interaction you have with that . I dont, really. I know some of the folks who work in editorial but they are in a Different Department than ours an operation, and so i dont really have a comment on what is going on on that side of the firewall. I will say that i have always felt supported by my editors at the New York Times. I have written a lot of stories that a lot of people have disagreed with. In particular, i know conservative americans are upset about what has happened with barry weiss. Ive written a lot of stories that upset liberals. They complained to my bosses about it and they have always supported me, no matter who was angry at me. I have always appreciated. That derek, to your economics question. I would say that there is no fire wall, because you have reporters that took down the opinion editor in the past. You should just read barry weiss is resignation letter. I will tell you about that. My point is this. On top of that, the free press has no free speech. That is really crazy. Lets talk about the economy. You brought up two trillion dollars. Bidens plan to bring electronic vehicles and electric vehicles and all that stuff. We have done that before with obama. By a handful, you should look at a book called by Michael Sheldon burger. Fantastic guy. He was the original Green New Deal guy in the early 2000s. He saw the corruption of what happened. Obama brought in 80 billion dollars, but it went to a handful of people who were basically you invest in the lobby to the government and you get a return of ex. These guys made off like bandits. 80 billion dollars for a handful of donors. That is 500 billion. Million. There was 80 billion. And it did not do anything. And every country, you look at france, you look at germany. Electric prices will go up. That was derrick, and minnesota. Jim tankersley, is the joe Biden Campaign concerned that these plans are picking eu winners and losers . That was a part of the concern when the solyndra issue came up. I think to be clear, i think it is the concern that anytime the government gets involved and trying to promote a particular center of the economy, which is not just something that the Obama Administration did, it is something that the Trump Administration has very much try to do. It is something that joe biden has talked a lot about doing. They are aware of those arguments. Their argument is that this is where the economy is going. Low carbon future is upon us. There is a race across the world to be leaders in technology. Governments are getting involved everywhere. I think the flip side to that argument is exactly what the color said. There are choices you have to make. Electricity prices will likely go up in the event of certain climate policy. It is also true that electricity prices have been fairly muted over the last decade or so because of Technological Advancements and things like hydraulic fracturing. Not all of the predictions have come to pass about any of it. I think, michael shellenberger, i used to cover energy the Chicago Tribune and i have been steeped in all of the arguments. Liu i will say that the economic arguments about clean energy have really evolved over the last decade. The administration the Current Administration certainly has a policy that favors particular types of energy. They are very much actively trying to help cool. That is something we have seen from president s across time. They tried to promote the things that they believe are most important to the National Economy and interest and i think that in a way, democrats are reacting to some of that much more aggressively pushing their own visions for industrial policy. The color mentioned the Green New Deal. This plan announced yesterday, two trillion dollars, certainly does not go as far as the Green New Deal. Were any of those folks involved and coming up with the Green New Deal plan involved in helping joe biden create this plan or any other economic plans that he is rolling out . Which will bite and has had its first off, a very deep veil of secrecy over who exactly are his closest advisers on the economy. There is a rule among the people who are part of some of the task force advising him that they are not allowed to speak to the press about their involvement. It is also true that he has had a very public process. Unity process with his former primary arrival Bernie Sanders. Many of sandersallies have joined with joe bidens allies to present recommendations for policy. Those include some Green New Deal folks. I think that it is unclear as of yet just how much impact those recommendations will have. They have clearly had some. All of this is the material of the campaign. Who biden staffs potential future ministration with, with policies he chooses emphasize over others if hes elected, those are the sorts of things that is very difficult to tell now, that you can look for clues based on people around him and he seems to be drawing guidance from. Fort worth, texas. This is evelyn, a democrat. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. My concern is regarding the economy. How our relation is globally because, the way i understand it, since President Trump has been an office, we have poor relations with other countries, european countries. Especially china. If i understand about china, they have been planning and seeking to make trade deals with other countries like south america and the Asian Pacific areas. Yes, yet, the u. S. President trump has basically isolated us from everyone else. I was concerned about that. My other concern let us take up that concern, because it is a big topic. Jim tankersley, how much is joe biden looking to reach out to these countries . A big part of the plan he announced last week was the buy american policy, the make it in america policy. Is he looking inward and not outward . Joe biden is trying to walk a line here where in he adopts the things he likes about the president s approach to trying to promote domestic manufacturing while also talking about trying to reengage america with the world there is an interesting concrete policy question that the caller is alluding to, which is the Obama Administration, having negotiated what was called the transpacific partnership. An agreement with a bunch of other pacific rim countries for trade. President trump has next to that, next to americas involvement in that. Joe biden, the last that i have read although i have not talked with the campaign the last i read, the campaign would not seek to reenter that but seek to renegotiate the terms of the tpp in order to create a better deal for america. It is a thin line. He is trying to both say he wants to be more engaged on the global stage and have more influence on trading partners than President Trump has, while at the same time saying he will be just as hawkish about bringing jobs back to america. This is the Editorial Board of the washing times and how they put it, bidens liberal burrowing. Mr. Biden owes a hat tip, a right to President Trump whose 2017 inaugural day speech included the following, we will follow two simple rules. Buy american and hire american. The policy over friday, the president could simply have referenced the old saying it imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Charles out of four collins, colorado. Good morning. Im glad you alluded to the tea tpp. I think we should bring that back and include india to take away some of the business from china and create more jobs in india. And put pressure on china who will put pressure on north korea. We have too many eggs in one basket and china. Besides all that, what troubles me is when isee americans about taxes. If you look back in the fdr years, a lot of the Corporate Taxes were 70 and higher. And our economy was we were doing very well back then. Now we are seeing the marginal rates and everything. Our tax is so low. It is not bringing jobs back. Maybe a little, but you are not going to cut taxes and create wealth in this nation. The supply side trickle down. I just dont see it ever working down and it never has. Even during the fdr years. When they tried this and it didnt work. Now i see this corporate greed, and middle america, since the seventies, the income disparity just keeps growing. Now, we have unrest. All nations, if you look at them. Because when people dont see hope, and when people dont have jobs, then you have revolution. Jim tankersley, i will let you jump in. It sounds like a topic you wrote in your book . I do. Something i read about every day as my job as an economics reporter, i would say there certainly is a real there has been a robust debate of the last three years, but not much evidence that the president s tax cuts have brought jobs and investment back to thenew york back to the United States at the rate the president promised. I would say the data are clear that promises have not come true about how much investment would return and in particular, how much new would come in from abroad. Biden is not seeking to deal with what the caller is Corporate Taxes anywhere near that corporate high. I hes actually not even talking about going back to what they were before the trump tax cut. Hes talking about going from a 21 28 rate which is something that president obama had proposed, cutting taxes down to that rate, so there is some acknowledgment that the previous rate was probably uncompetitive compared to other countries to around the world and their