Biden Wants to Build ‘From the Middle Out.’ Here’s What He Means
The big idea is that policies to bolster the middle class will benefit everyone.
Building “from the middle out” isn’t just some speechwriter’s throwaway line. When President Biden used that phrase on March 31 in announcing his $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan, he was taking sides in a long-running argument inside the Democratic Party. He was siding with the populist, liberal wing of the party and implicitly distancing himself from the low-tax, pro-business wing associated with former Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, among others.
Middle-out economics is a coinage of Nick Hanauer, a wealthy Seattle entrepreneur and venture capitalist who was an early investor in Amazon.com Inc. (ka-ching!) and now spends most of his time advocating for liberal causes, including a $15 national minimum wage. Middle-out means prosperity must begin with the middle class. It’s the left’s alternative to top-down, or trickle-down economics, which is based on the concept that cutting taxes and reducing regulation on the rich will unleash their entrepreneurial energies and benefit all.