How do I reconcile this idea with his, "Nothing will fundamentally change" talk he gave the elites not long ago when I'm trying to convince people to hold their nose and vote for him in Nov?
Joe Biden has been talking about income inequality a lot lately — to his rich donors
Biden has done more fundraisers than campaign events so far this year.
www.vox.com
Biden has also floated the idea of closing tax loopholes and getting rid of exemptions that benefit the rich at these events. He recently noted that during the presidency of Republican Ronald Reagan, there existed around $800 billion worth of tax exemptions, adding those exemptions have gotten closer to $1.6 trillion now.
"I could take about $400 [billion] away, and it wouldn't change your standard of living one tiny little bit — not even an iota," Biden told donors.
Still, he's not adopting the same aggressive language and policies of Warren and Sanders. Warren has proposed a new wealth tax for America's ultra-rich: a 2 percent tax levied on assets more than $50 million and 3 percent on assets over $1 billion. Warren wants to use this money to pay for bold proposals, like erasing millions of people's student loan debt, and creating a debt-free college program.
Sanders, who leaped to political stardom in 2016 when he ran against Hillary Clinton, is still railing against the undue influence of "millionaires and billionaires" on Americans economics and policy. Biden is taking a much more careful tone.
"I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who has made money," the former vice president said at the Carlyle fundraiser. "We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it's all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one's standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change."
Again, there are a couple of ways to perceive those remarks, as Vox's Andrew Prokop recently explained:
One interpretation of Biden's comments is that he's telling these rich donors, essentially, that some redistribution of wealth won't hurt them all that much, and that it's better for everyone (including them) if it happens, so they shouldn't freak out about it.
This is arguably not so different from how, say, Elizabeth Warren promotes her marquee proposal of a wealth tax — she stresses that it's a mere two cents on every dollar above a $50 million-plus fortune.
A less sympathetic glean is that Biden is assuring the wealthy that whatever redistribution of wealth he pursues will be limited and moderate, and there's no "revolution" coming that they should freak out about.
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