Joe the Plumber
I love the thought that right-wingers all across the country are searching this out now, thanks to John McCain, and seeing the brilliance and, frankly, the strength of character and confidence displayed here by Barack Obama.
'Joe the Plumber' wanted to hammer on Obama, but came away with a certain respect, though perhaps not agreement.
Remember, the guy doesn't own the company yet. He was just saying that he was about to buy it, but would pay more taxes under Obama if his taxable income was over $250K. Obama said the taxable rate would increase from 36% to 39% -- the rate it was under Clinton -- but only for any income amounts above $250K.
By the way... 3% more tax on $30K above $250K is $900.
If you ask me, for a guy making $280K to be whining about $900 in extra taxes is obscene (and unpatriotic, as Biden says). I'm not saying 'Joe the Plumber' was whining, and he has every right to be concerned. But Obama was most impressive to take the time to explain it to Joe (the Plumber).
The whining will come from those right-wingers who don't respect Obama's intelligence, don't share his sense of fairness, and can't understand why so many other Americans DO, particularly on November 4th.
Even when McCain made Joe the Plumber his centerpiece of Debate III, he still lost!
Update: According to many sources, including the Toledo Blade newspaper, Joe the Plumber, aka Joe Wurzelbacker of Holland, Ohio, is not only NOT a licensed plumber (you can't represent yourself as a plumber, just as you can't an architect or a doctor, without the license), he's NOT undecided as portrayed by the press (a registered Republican), and the company that he works for and 'says' he wants to buy makes LESS THAN $250K a year (the cost of a company that produces over $250K in taxable income a year would be well over a million to purchase, by the way). So he's just plain Republican Joe who would benefit more under an Obama administration... like the other 95% of us. Go figure.
posted by Howard at 10:24 PM
2 Comments:
Even though it looks like Joe has his sites set high, this isn't a bad thing. The thing that really gets me is the Republican scare tactics that say any taxes will kill small businesses. I would not even consider Obama as 'raising' taxes, since in effect is all he will be doing in Joe's hypotheicical case will be rolling back the Bush tax cut. I agree fully with your assessmenent of the impact of $900 of tax on a business making $280,000 per year.
I think we're seeing right now the downturn that Bush's economic (including tax) policies have brought. McCain has said he will continue these economic policies (tax cuts for the wealthy). As if the Wall Street bailout isn't enough of redistribution of wealth (or should I say Rape of the middle class).
I can't be too down on Joe for being a registered Republican; I was too re-registering for this election.
McCain used the example the example that Joe would want to buy a truck but the tax would make that difficult (I believe it was McCain). Well, Joe would not have to pay tax on that money, kind of. He would be able to deduct it, even if not all in the same year. Tax would only be on profit.
Post a Comment
<< Home