Joe Biden Tries To Answer a Question

So the Democrats had yet another debate, and with 10 people all vying for time and a media outlet more concerned with ratings and protecting the status quo then keeping the electorate informed, incoherent-like messages became the flavor of the day. No candidate best exemplifies this more than former Vice President Joe Biden. Below is how he responded to Senator Elizabeth Warren's response about dealing with income inequality:

BURNETT: Vice President Biden, you have warned against demonizing rich people. Do you believe that Senator Sanders and Senator Warren's wealth tax plans do that?

BIDEN: No, look, demonizing wealth -- what I talked about is how you get things done. And the way to get things done is take a look at the tax code right now. The idea -- we have to start rewarding work, not just wealth. I would eliminate the capital gains tax -- I would raise the capital gains tax to the highest rate, of 39.5 percent.

I would double it, because guess what? Why in God's name should someone who's clipping coupons in the stock market make -- in fact, pay a lower tax rate than someone who, in fact, is -- like I said -- the -- a schoolteacher and a firefighter? It's ridiculous. And they pay a lower tax.

Secondly, the idea that we, in fact, engage in this notion that there are -- there’s $1,640,000,000,000 in tax loopholes. You can’t justify a minimum $600 billion of that. We could eliminate it all. I could go into detail had I the time.

Secondly -- I mean, thirdly, what we need to do is we need to go out and make it clear to the American people that we are going to -- we are going to raise taxes on the wealthy. We're going to reduce tax burdens on those who are not.

And this is one of the reasons why these debates are kind of crazy, because everybody tries to squeeze everything into every answer that is given. The fact is, everybody's right about the fact that the fourth industrial revolution is costing jobs. It is. The fact is also corporate greed is they're going back and not investing in our employees, they're reinvesting and buying back their stock.

BURNETT: Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

Oh, boy, where to begin?

First, Biden implies that the crux of income inequality is the tax code. As a solution, he says he would "eliminate the capital gains tax" then says he would "raise it to it's highest rate" then says he "would double it."

He talks about some imaginary person "clipping coupons in the stock market" but than transforms that imaginary person into a "schoolteacher or firefighter" who he then concedes show pay lower taxes.

He says that there's over $1.6 trillion in tax loopholes, and while we "can't justify a minimum of $600 billion of that", "we could eliminate it all."

Then, (keep in mind Burnett's question to him), he agrees "to raise taxes on the wealthy" and "reduce tax burdens on those who are not [wealthy]."

Finally (and ironically) he laments about the inherent flaw of debating and explaining complex issues in this infotainment format. And closes by personifying "corporate greed" as the bad guy who's "reinvesting and buying back their stock" instead of "investing in our employees."

Yikes.

I'm not sold that the tax code is the primary reason wealth inequality exists, and I'm equally unsure how Biden would modify the tax code. But he also suggests eliminating tax loopholes and confronting corporate greed, so obviously the tax code is not the end all/be all solution here.

But here's my two points:

1. Joe Biden's explanation is a big fat mess that has to be filtered in order to get to the somewhat valid points, but these points range from non-controversial (corporate greed is bad) to borderline arcane (how many voters sit around discussing the tax code?). Compare this to Donald Trump's straight-to-the-point (yet usually false) rhetoric and Biden comes off as doddering. 
2. More frustratingly: Joe Biden was Vice President for eight years. He could have addressed this issue while he was in office!!! The fact that it is still a problem (as opposed to something like Obamacare, which Trump purposefully made less effective) makes Biden look unsuccessful as an executive. All Trump has to do is ask, "So Joe, why didn't you fix any of these problems when you were in office?" 

 In a world where more than half of the Democratic candidates come off as over-rehearsed, Biden could really use some note cards.