Joe Biden, ice cream in hand as so often, yesterday pronounced on Liz Truss’s tax reform disaster.

‘I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake,’ said Joe Biden, sounding every bit the wise old man of global politics. ‘I think that the idea of cutting taxes on the super-wealthy at a time when… I disagree with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain.’

That concession at the end is the President realising he’s just breached the normal rules of diplomacy – by giving his opinion on an ally’s domestic difficulties. But he just can’t help himself.

Steerpike wonders, however, if Biden – no pauper himself after cashing in on his status after the Obama years – can recall what the highest rate of income tax in the United States is.

Because Liz Truss’s proposal, if it had been allowed, would still have left Britain a considerably less accommodating fiscal destination for the super wealthy than America currently is.

Let’s explain it, nice and clear for dear old Joe. Liz Truss had proposed reducing the highest rate of income tax – on people earning £150,000 or more per year – from 45 per cent to 40 per cent. In the US, at the federal level, the highest rate of income tax comes in at 37 per cent for those earning $523,600 (about £470,000 at current exchange rates). Someone earning the equivalent £150,000 in America would only narrowly creep into the third highest federal tax bracket of 32 per cent. If they managed to shed $4k from their income liability, they would pay just 24 per cent.

Yes, Americans face more state-level and property taxes – but only three states have a personal income tax rate above 10 per cent. Most states charge far less. Someone earning $550,000 a year in Wyoming, for instance, would pay about 33 per cent in tax.

So – not only are there many more ‘super wealthy’ Americans – they pay considerably less as a percentage of their income in tax than their well-off British peers. It’s not very fashionable to say so, but Steerpike can’t help wondering if those two points are connected.

Biden has probably forgotten, but he has proposed increasing the top rate of marginal tax in the US – for those earning over $530k, remember – to 39 per cent. That would still leave the US federal rate below where Liz Truss was proposing it should be for the UK.

Perhaps he should reflect less on Britain’s fiscal rates and more on the failure of his absurdly named Inflation Reduction Act and the threat facing his party in the upcoming mid-terms – as less fortunate Americans struggle to cope with the cost of living.