"Joe The Plumber" Speaks: "It's Pretty Surreal"

UPDATE : Joe the Plumber: McCain "Appalled Me," Made Me Feel "Dirty"

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Who is Joe the Plumber?

He is Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio man looking to buy a plumbing business who came to symbolize the notion of "spreading the wealth" in Wednesday night's third and final presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

Earlier this week, when Wurzelbacher got a chance to speak with Obama when the candidate visited Toledo, he told Obama that his tax plan would keep him from buying the business that currently employs him.

Sensing an opening in the debate, McCain cited that exchange when the candidates were asked to explain why their economic plans are better than their opponent's. McCain said Obama's plan would stop entrepreneurs from investing in new small businesses and keep existing ones from growing.

"Joe wants to buy the business that he has been in for all of these years, worked 10, 12 hours a day. And he wanted to buy the business but he looked at your tax plan and he saw that he was going to pay much higher taxes," McCain challenged Obama.

"You were going to put him in a higher tax bracket which was going to increase his taxes, which was going to cause him not to be able to employ people, which Joe was trying to realize the American dream," McCain said.

McCain then looked directly into the TV camera and said: "Joe, I want to tell you, I'll not only help you buy that business that you worked your whole life for and I'll keep your taxes low and I'll provide available and affordable health care for you and your employees. And I will not stand for a tax increase on small business income."

Obama denied that was true.

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"Not only do 98 percent of small businesses make less than $250,000, but I also want to give them additional tax breaks, because they are the drivers of the economy," Obama said. "They produce the most jobs."

So what did Wurzelbacher (pronounced whur-zell-BAHK-er) think about being at the center of the debate?

"It's pretty surreal, man, my name being mentioned in a presidential campaign," he said minutes after hearing McCain utter his name.

In Toledo on Sunday, Wurzelbacher told Obama that he was preparing the 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.

"And the reason why we're doing that is because 95 percent of small businesses make less than 250 (thousand). So what I want to do is give them a tax cut. I want to give all these folks who are bus drivers, teachers, auto workers who make less, I want to give them a tax cut," he said.

Wurzelbacher protested, saying he's been a hardworking plumber for 15 years and why should he be taxed more.

"It's not that I want to punish your success," Obama said. "I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you that they've got a chance at success, too."

At a later point in the discussion, Obama said: "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody. But listen, I respect what you do and I respect your question, and even if I don't get your vote, I'm still gonna be working hard on your behalf because small businesses are what creates jobs in this country and I want to encourage it."

Wurzelbacher's name came up again when the debate turned to a discussion of health care policies.

He said Obama's reaction on the tax question left him feeling uneasy.

"I didn't think much of it the first time I heard it," Wurzelbacher said, adding that he still thinks Obama's plan would keep him from buying the business.

About McCain: "He's got it right as far as I go."

Even so, Wurzelbacher declined to say which candidate would get his vote on Nov. 4.

"That's for me and a button to know," he said.

___

On the Net:

McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com

Obama: http://www.barackobama.com

Comments

[JJoseph]

Hey Joe,

If you take Obama's tax cut on your $40,000 salary you will get $500.

Also you might be able to pay some of the 1200 buck you owe on back taxes.

With McBush you will be lucky to get enough to buy a toilet brush at the Dollar Store.

[Jackie728]

Joe, The Plumber Ad

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1243705446/bclid1201016315/bctid1861218643

[DavidATolucaLake]

Hey, Joe
If you end up earning $300k next year, guess how much more you will pay under Obamas tax plan.
$1500.

Is paying $1500 more really going to tarnish your economic world???

Give me a break.

(The first 250k is tax exempt, the next 50k is taxed at a new rate of 39%, up from 36%. Thats 3% more.
$50,000 x .03= $1,500 more)

[PSRinNJ2]

Not the point. The point is that Obama replied with a Marxist phrase like "spread the wealth around". That is the real point. That why you are all bent on destroying Joe.

[dnno1]

If you want to improve the economy all over the country, you want to spread the wealth around, not in the areas that are already prosperous (i.e. the wealthy areas). This is part of promoting the general welfare of the nation which the government is chartered to do under the constitution. That's the real point here.

[torbin]

yes, Stalin sent us an email last night and asked us to destroy Joe the plumber. How did you figure out our plot?!

[TN]

At this point, I think 95% of us are ready for the wealthy, who have enjoyed the majority of tax cuts, that have actually enjoyed a redistribution of our income to themselves, are ready for a little, "spread the wealth around."

Love how the rich call it redistribution when the little guy is paying higher % of income than them.

[sonofsamphm1c]

"Not the point. The point is that Obama replied with a Marxist phrase like "spread the wealth around". That is the real point. That why you are all bent on destroying Joe. ..." - PSRinNJ2

Trickle-down economics was supposed to spread the wealth?

Was Reagan a Marxist?

[Tinsdale]

Please leave Groucho out of this.

[nighthawk808]

Go ahead and vote for McCain, Joe. Then your country will be in such a sad shape you'll have to close your business, rather than being able to whine because you might have to chip in to pay for the war in Iraq and the bailing out of incompetent bankers the Republicans stuck you with. If you're planning to run a business, Joe, you're going to have to learn that money doesn't come out of thin air, and McBush has left you with a lot to pay for.

[TAIsabel]

Has it ever occurred to the Republicans that being a patriot and an American comes with a responsibility towards your country and not just your bank account??!! How can they justify their anti-tax phobia and still claim to be patriots when the good of the people and the country allways takes a backseat to profits?

Do they think that infraestructure, schools, hospitals, and even their beloved defense grows on trees? This is the typical Banana Republic mentality whereby the rich are above the law and the pettiness of paying taxes. I have many friends that live in Latin America, are part of the top 1% (in some cases 1/2%!) and they consider paying taxes "beneath them". All around them are starving people living in slums, favelas and out on the street, they simply have their chauffers take the route that gets them straight to their country clubs and ignore the misery. Honestly, how can Republicans live with themselves??!!

[JohnJames]

Well said.

[TAIsabel]

Thanks!

[CaptainStormfield]

Yes. very well said. I have been screaming for years that they want to turn us in to a banana republic.

[PoliticalPartyPooper]

The rich ($250,000) are above paying taxes?

Have you ever paid the alternative minimum tax? It takes a twenty percent tax rate, and turns it into a 35% rate. And now you're telling Americans that 35% isn't enough? What in the hell is wrong with you people? We have to pay more?

When will you be satisfied.­..when I'm paying 125% of my earnings because i have a successful business?

[nighthawk808]

Two-thirds of the 10+ trillion national debt was piled on by people named either Reagan or Bush. Do you think Republicans are the party that are suddenly going to fix it? When will you be satisfied? When the debt reaches $100 trillion? $1 quadrillion?

[TN]

When Hillary showed her return, they paid about 26% if you divided the tax paid by the taxable income.

The problem here is that people don't know what they are talking about. If you don't know how taxes are computed, graduated, you would know that absolutely know one, especially the rich, with their loopholes, don't pay anywhere close to that. DUH!

[justsaynotofascism]

You need a better accountant.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-devin/many-us-corporations-not_b_135104.html

[nanners0808]

exactly! look at all of the countries where there is a large disparity between the the haves and the have nots, where a small percentage of the country holds an overwhelming majority of the wealth.

is this the dream that you want for america???

[PSRinNJ2]

So taking that wealth at gunpoint from the people who actually earned it and giving it to people who didn't sounds like America to you?

[who38]

Need to add some bananas to the flag, right?

[CaptainStormfield]

rrcgop.orgp.org Republicans in Sacto publishing Obama Osama mailer.
http://www.ranchochamber.org/members/response/689733.php
Republican Group with http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_buck16.3d67d4a.html Obama on a fake food stamp.
Tell em what you think :)

[CBS]

To paraphrase McCain "who IS Joe The Plumber?" Apparently not who McCain thought hew was. And neither is Palin. Judgment we CAN'T count on.

[geobushono]

Local officials have looked into Joe's situation, and it turns out he doesn't have a license, and neither does his boss.
They are claiming they don't need a license.
I was a Licensed Contractor for 40 years, and there is NO PLACE IN THE US, that you can be a plumber or an electrician without a license...­.........s­ome States require Licenses for all trades, and some don't require a license EXCEPT for plumbing and electrical.
This story will get wide play by tomorrow.

[who38]

Lawsuits to follow.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Joe I hope it was worth what ever the McCain campaign paid you to have your private life all over the news.

[neuron]

This putz has talked to the press more in one day than the (R) VP candidate has iin six weeks.

[DCCommuter]

"Joe the Plumber" is a marketing campaign. John McCain mentioned him in the debate, his dork spokesman this morning mentioned his name 3 times to reporters he was talking to, this evening the Michigan Republican female congresswoman mentioned him on XM POTUS radio, and then they played a speech where the person introducing Sarah Palin in Maine today mentioned Joe the Plumber in her intro of Palin.

Oh yes, this is not some spontaneous mention of this dude. This was to give John McCain a second (younger) running mate. And Joe the Plumber talks to the press; Palin doesn't.

[justsaynotofascism]

Joe NOT the plumber's story has unravelled­...

Joe is not a plumber, is not a union member, has never been licensed, has never been to a school or training facitlity to learn plumbing, and he's been an employee of a licensed plumber for 6 years. He makes somewhere around $40,000 a year, is registered as a republican, and voted in Ohio's 2008 republican primary.

In January, 2007, the Ohio Department of Taxation placed a lien against him because $1,183 in personal property taxes had not been paid, but there has been no action in the case since it was filed.

He's 34, his 13 year old son lives with him, and Joe (Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher) lived in Arizona 1997->2000. Apart from some of his political views (rightwing­/libertari­an) which he's shared, that's what has been verified.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS09/810160418/-1/NEWS

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27221645/


***YOU can calculate your tax *SAVINGS* under Obama's plan here:

http://taxcut.barackobama.com/

[who38]

Too bad Schmidt didn't do a better job of vetting him. He didn't do so well with Palin either. Hope he joins Careville in the junk heap of bad political advisors.

[pjean]

Keith Olbermann just announced that Joe the plumber aka Samuel only makes $40,000, he doesn't have a plumbers license and the owner of the plumbing company makes $180,000 a year. He also talked about the money that "Joe" owes the IRS.

This is why I love this show.

[Haditup2here]

I just saw that report too. McCain and campaign are full of clowns and bad actors. I hope the Obama campaign is working on their get out the vote strategy.

[lamattina]

I'm going to try to use quotation marks with skill and thought, ie: Poor "Joe the Plumber"; he got totally "Jessica Lynched."

[justsaynotofascism]

Good one!, but not quite the same. Jessica never promoted herself and made false claims. Joe NOT the plumber did.

[mclean08]

The Obama campaign could'nt have dreamed up a better ploy. Looks like McCain shot himself in the foot. I agree w/ Obama in that "it's time to turn the page" & let the next generation govern notwithstanding the fact that Obama's platform is better than his opponents.

[Proletariat]

How stupid does McCain think the american public is?

[Haditup2here]

Apparently, more than him and Bush -- but then some of his supporters at their rallies seems to fit that bill.

[max]

pretty stupid

[DCCommuter]

Well, he is correct about about 40% so far--his supporters.
He is just trying now to get the "undecided stupids."

I figure part of their October plan is to find some 48-year-old female to claim Obama attacked her in high school. AMERICA IS STUPID ENOUGH AND PREJUDICE ENOUGH TO BUY IT.

We must not get complacent.

[who38]

Very stupid. He is counting on it. Now, let's forget Joe and pay attention to the voter challenges being made in Ohio. Joe, the faux, is not registered to vote so we can forget about him.

[justsaynotofascism]

So you won't be confused..­. here is the truth about Joe NOT the plumber:


Joe is not a plumber, is not a union member, and he's been an employee of a licensed plumber for 6 years. He makes somewhere around $40,000 a year, is registered as a republican, and voted in Ohio's 2008 republican primary.

In January, 2007, the Ohio Department of Taxation placed a lien against him because $1,183 in personal property taxes had not been paid, but there has been no action in the case since it was filed.

He's 34, his 13 year old son lives with him, and Joe (Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher) lived in Arizona 1997->2000. Apart from some of his political views which he's shared, that's what has been verified.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS09/810160418/-1/NEWS

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27221645/


***YOU you can calculate your tax *SAVINGS* under Obama's plan here:

http://taxcut.barackobama.com/

[Palemoon]

You are truely someone who is winning my heart by speaking the truth and fighting the good fight against those fascists who would enslave us.

Thank you.

[justsaynotofascism]

That's so sweet. Thank you!

The only way we can take this nation back is to do it together. Here's hoping we're successful! :-)

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Joe did an interview this afternoon with the press, and began talking about top down economics, referring to the cost to his suppliers being passed down to him, as well as being proud America, bla, bla, bla. Considering he is an un-licensed plumber’s assistant who makes 40 K a year, Joe is pretty versed in economic theory a regular Milton Friedman.

One more thing why would Joe a registered Republican, who already voted for McCain once drive from Toledo to Columbus Ohio, which is across the state to attend an Obama, rally. I wouldn’t drive across town to see McCain, my mind is made up, something stinks and it isn’t cheese.

[freddymedal]

I heard Joe say he and his son were playing football in the front yard. He drove across town to play football in someone elses front yard?

[justsaynotofascism]

Joe NOT the plumber met Obama when Obama was canvassing his neighborhood this past Sunday. Joe saw a crowd gathering around Obama and went over to ask him his question.

[who38]

Slow work day? He must be making more than 40K a year if he is driving across the state to attend a political rally. What is the price of gasoline in Ohio?