‘Things have gotten really out of whack,’ Biden tells crowd in Iowa

Vice President Biden touched on a number of Democratic campaign themes during a speech in Iowa on Wednesday to help kick off a nationwide tour for a group of Catholic nuns traveling the country to register voters.

{mosads}Though his trip to the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating state stoked speculation about his own bid, Biden said he was there for the nuns.

“I was asked by the press why am I going out with Nuns on the Bus. I said because they are nuns. It is a simple proposition. You are looking at a kid that had 12 years of Catholic education. I woke up every morning saying, ‘yes sister, no sister,’ ” he said during his speech in front of the Iowa Capitol, joking that he is still obedient.

His trip comes a few days after Hillary Clinton and her husband visited the state to attend Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) Steak Fry, a proving ground for potential Democratic presidential prospects.

Biden was the keynote speaker at the Steak Fry one year earlier.

Biden, who has said he is considering a run for the White House, hit on a number of Democratic touchstones in his speech on Wednesday, including immigration reform, voting rights, economic inequality and minimum wage.

“Things have gotten really out of whack, folks,” Biden said, partially blaming it on a lack of voter participation. “There is only one way to put them back in place, and that is to take a good look at what each political party is suggesting.”

Biden took a shot at the recent increase in Republican-led voter identification laws in some states. 

“Being involved in the civil rights movement for so long, I never thought I would see the day that in the last eight years, 81 pieces of legislation have been introduced in state legislatures to curtail the right to vote,” Biden said.

“There used to be a consensus,” he added.

Biden also put a heavy emphasis on the middle class.

Biden criticized politicians — “even Democrats” — for not talking enough about the problems facing the middle class. He lamented the expanding divide between the poor, middle class and wealthy over the last few decades.

He said the middle class used to be based on the idea that if you contributed to the productivity of a company, you were allowed “to share in that growth.”

“That is what built the middle class, and it is time to restore that bargain, deal the middle class back in,” Biden said. “That is what you are all about, because when the middle class does well, everyone does well.”

Often, Biden said, too much emphasis is put on ensuring corporations are not overtaxed and that Wall Street does not become over-regulated.

The focus should be on creating a fair tax structure, he said, as well as rolling back the estate tax and corporate loopholes and fighting “inversion,” a practice in which corporations move their headquarters overseas to take advantage of lower tax rates.

The Nuns on the Bus campaign started in 2012 when Catholic nuns traveled across the country protesting Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget proposal. Biden is the first Roman Catholic to serve as vice president.

It sprung out of the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, which advocates for “economic and social transformation.”

The group has scheduled events in 36 cities this year encouraging people to vote and to hold candidates responsible. The group lists support for a minimum wage, universal healthcare, narrowing the wealth gap and protecting immigrants rights as top priorities.

Biden’s visit was an official White House trip. The Des Moines Register reported that he was not campaigning for specific candidates but planned to participate in a fundraiser where some individuals would be allowed to take a picture with him.

Clinton continues to dominate early polling for the Democratic nomination. A CNN poll released last week found 53 percent of Iowa Democratic voters would vote for Clinton, while 15 percent selected Biden.