I’ll take Too Obscure to be Funny for $800, Alex.
If Joe can’t buy a business it might be because his credit rating sucks.
I remember when my plumber stopped by to pick up a check and his truck was either in the shop or he didn’t feel like driving it so he drove one of his other cars, a late model BMW 7-series, or when he mentioned that he was retiring to Florida where he was almost done building a custom house with a pool. More specifically, I remember asking myself why I didn’t become a plumber.
The New York Times reports today that Joe the Plumber (real name Joe Wurzelbacher) asked Obama at a campaign stop, “I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes $250,000 to $280,000 a year. Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?” As others noted, there’s a difference between a business that makes $250,000 per year and a business owner who does (especially when you’re talking about adjusted gross income). So rather than the image of a plumber who is a sole proprietor with a truck, I get the image of a guy sitting at a desk with a staff of plumbers. If he’s making that much in AGI, I doubt that he’s getting his hands dirty.
And then both Joe the Plumber and McCain called Obama’s tax plan “redistribution of wealth” and called it socialism. Well, isn’t all taxation redistribution of wealth? I mean, I rent an apartment instead of paying a mortgage, so I don’t get the income tax break that mortgage payers do. So my wealth is being redistributed to those who are homeowners. And what about the $700 billion redistribution of wealth to the bankers?
What about “Joe, the Jizz Mop Guy down at the local Peep Booth”?
Me too. I’d gladly pay some more taxes if I could trade places with Joe.
Incidentally, I heard a report on the radio today done by non-partisan analysts that said Joe, after all his expenses are paid, would pay three times less tax under Obama’s plan. Granted, whoever gets in office, it’s hard to tell if they’ll actually get their plan passed as presented now.
I came in here because I would have sworn the quote was from Robert Heinlein, but it turns out it was from John Gardner:
Just tell him I said ‘hi’ and I’ll see him Friday.
Man, I don’t even wanna know how many hits this guy’s web site is getting lately.
It’s becoming like John Galt. “Who is Joe the Plumber?”
You’ll make money if you come out with some of the first Joe the Plumber action figures/T-shirts. (Jane Withers evidently doesn’t count.)
What everyone here seems to have failed to realize is that Joe The Plumber & Joe Six-Pack American are one and the same guy. It’s like Edward Norton & Brad Pitt in Fight Club.
Eventually, he’ll try to blow his brains out. But being the incompetent everyman, he’ll miss.
The Toledo Blade is reporting that not only has Joe the Plumber has a lien against him for unpaid taxes (so why should he care about higher taxes if he’s not going to pay them?) – he’s also not licensed to be a plumber.
Joe the Unlicensed Tax Dodger would be a more apt nickname for the man.
More news about Joe…
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/joe-in-the-spotlight/?hp
From the linked article:
Mr. Wurzelbacher is registered to vote in Lucas County under the name Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher.
“We have his named spelled W-O, instead of W-U,” Linda Howe, executive director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said in a telephone interview. “Handwriting is sometimes hard to read. He has never corrected it in his registration card.”
OH NOES! Joe the Plumber is engaging in VOTER FRAUD!
This guy’s a fucking moron, that’s all. He currently makes $40,000 a year, which means he’s going to get tax cuts. He’s bitching because someday, when he buys this business he’s not licensed to run, he *may *make $250,000 or more.
[Wurzelbacher, 34, said he doesn’t have a good plan put together on how he would buy Newell Plumbing and Heating in nearby Toledo.
He said the business consists of owner Al Newell and him. Wurzelbacher said he’s worked there for six years and that the two have talked about his taking it over at some point.
“There’s a lot I’ve got to learn,” he said.
<snip>
In Toledo on Sunday, Wurzelbacher told Obama that he was preparing to buy the plumbing company, which earns more than $250,000 a year, and said: “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”
Obama said that under his proposal taxes on any revenue from $250,000 on down would stay the same, but that amounts above that level would be subject to a 39 percent tax, instead of the current 36 percent rate.
Wurzelbacher said Obama’s tax plan wouldn’t affect him right now, because he doesn’t make $250,000. “But I hope someday I’ll make that,” he said.](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081016/ap_on_el_pr/joe_the_plumber)
To make matters worse, the Blade also found that the Ohio Department of Taxation placed a lien against Joe because $1,183 in personal property taxes had not been paid. To pile on, the paper disclosed, based on divorce records, Joe’s 2006 income — $40,000, hardly enough to qualify for the tax hike he’s so concerned about.
Sounds like a real prince, there.
Come on, do I have to draw you a flowchart?
- Wish to buy company
- McCAIN MAGIC!!!
- PROFIT!!!
I don’t see Obama anywhere in that equation–do you?
The AP article from Yahoo says, “Obama said that under his proposal taxes on any revenue from $250,000 on down would stay the same, but that amounts above that level would be subject to a 39 percent tax, instead of the current 36 percent rate.” I don’t believe that’s correct. Instead, his proposal is to tax individuals earning more than $250,000 at 39%. This really isn’t a tax increase, but a return to the tax rates prior to the Bush tax cuts. And it sounds like the plumbing business has revenues of $250,000, not that Joe expects to have an adjusted gross income of that amount. So he won’t have to pay more taxes under Obama.
I believe, my friends, that McCain knows exactly how Joe will buy the company. He has a plan for how Joe will acquire that company, my friends.
If my business ever becomes as profitable as Joe the Plumber hopes his will be, I will be able to afford to pay a little more in taxes. I won’t like it and I might bitch about it, but I could afford it. I know wealthy people that feel this way as well.
I must confess that I was watching the debate, but not closely… and I thought the guy’s NAME was Joe DaPlumba.