All this week, or since the final presidential debate between Barack Obama & John McCain last Wednesday night when McCain brought up his name twenty one times all I've been hearing about is this guy called Joe The Plumber. McCain and the Republicans have been holding him up as a example of a hardworking everyman who would get screwed by Obama's tax plan. His plan would raise taxes on people who make over $250.000 and give tax breaks to the 95% of us that make less.
This average Joe claims that he wants to buy a plumbing business that makes a profit just over the $250.000 mark just enough to have his taxes raised. He was lucky enough to get the attention of a news crew and Barack Obama last week as the Presidential candidate was visiting his small town near Toledo Ohio. Joe got the opportunity to lay out his fantasy to Obama, Joe then got a six minute explanation of his tax policy and his reasons for increasing the tax for people earning more then a quarter of a Milion dollars.
Poor Joe just couldn't comprehend any of Obama's well thought out plan. The question he asked might have been a legitimate question for someone in that tax bracket to ask but this so called Joe (real name Sam) wasn’t truly who or what he claimed to be. Yes, he might have a dream of operating his own plumbing business, I dream of owning the Boston Red Sox but that is beside the point. First Joe is just a plumber’s helper and not a licensed plumber. The company he wants to buy is worth only $100.000 and only made about a $20, 000 profits last year so under that circumstance the business would receive a tax break under the Obama tax plan. Joe must be one heck of a business man if he instantly can turn a business that makes only $20,000 in profit to one that makes almost $300.000 in pure profit a year even with the economy in a free fall. In ‘Joe’s” dream world once he made his money he wouldn’t want to help other who are struggling because he got his through hard work and why should he help pay for anybody that he deems unworthy( people like himself)when Obama responded to his concern by pointing out that there are many people working just as hard or harder than Joe who need extra money just to get by he seems unmoved by their pain even when he was told by Obama that paying a little more in taxed to help the poor and middle class he might be helping himself because they would be the ones who might be the ones who hire him to do their plumbing and with more customers his business would make more money.
Someone figured out if Joe did indeed own his very profitable plumbing business and his fantasy of making a clear profit of $280,000 the highest amount he would have to pay would be an extra $900 a year.
(Here’s an example who he would help if he had to pay that extra money in taxes.)
Let's say that there is a guy named Samuel J. Wurzelbacher from Holland, Ohio who claims to work ten to twelve hours a day, six to seven days a week making around $40.000 a year as a year as a unlicensed plumbers helper( Roughly $10 an hour plus time and half for overtime if Joe were a licensed unionized plumber he would be probably be making around $45 an hour) under Obama’s tax plan he would receive a tax cut over $500 a year , money that he could use to help him achieve his goal of owning his own business but with the way George Bush and his cronies have ruined The U.S. and the worlds economy , Now days, Joe would find it hard to get a loan to buy his dream business let alone make enough money to qualify for a tax increase
Maybe if Joe had been more honest and asked Obama a straight question to do with his reality not his fantasy he would be taken more seriously by the Majority of hard working Americans just like the real Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, who are truly concerned with day by day financial survival.
Here's the full six minute conversation that Barack Obama had with "Joe" the plumber.Try to guess witch one is lying. (Hint- He looks like Mr. Clean)
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