(Corrects third paragraph to say Joe about to buy a business)
Joe the Plumber was the surprise star of the third and final presidential debate, getting no less than 13 mentions in the opening minutes.
So who is this guy? His full name is Joe Wurzelbacher, and it turns out he had a close encounter with Barack Obama a few days ago. John McCain adopted Joe’s cause as a way to tar his opponent as a tax-and-spend liberal. 
The apparent problem is that Joe is about to buy a company that makes a little over $250,000 a year, and under Obama’s proposal that would put him into a higher tax bracket. Obama told Joe that he wasn’t trying to punish his success, only to spread the wealth around.
“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 said.
“Joe, I want to tell you, I’ll not only help you buy that business that you worked your whole life for and be able — and I’ll keep your taxes low and I’ll provide available and affordable health care for you and your employees,” McCain said, staring straight into the camera.
McCain got a little caught up in the moment and muddled in his message to Joe by saying at one point that “fifty percent of small business income taxes are paid by small businesses.”
Still, Joe the Plumber has become a bit of Internet celebrity and Republicans quickly latched onto his plight, issuing a statement saying his comments to Joe showed that Obama would “tax to death” the American Dream.
Obama’s response was that Joe the Plumber needed a tax cut five years ago, and Obama wants to “make sure that the plumber, the nurse, the firefighter, the teacher, the young entrepreneur who doesn’t yet have money, I want to give them a tax break now. And that requires us to make some important choices.”
As for Joe himself, directory assistance had no telephone listing for him in Toledo, Ohio. If you’re listening, Joe, we’d love to hear how you’re handling fame!
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credit: Reuters/Gary Hershorn (McCain makes a point at the presidential debate)
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Sam the Gas Station Guy……….sam is sammer issa anabi. rawa is his wife. very wealthy and not voting for obama because of profit in gas prices. This article was a sham.
C.A.R. Enterprises owns 60 facilities that offer combinations of fuel, C-store, and car washing services in California. Sam Anabi, president of C.A.R.
- Posted by dsmrHey Jon Bridgewater (oct 29), what kind of dumbed up logic are using? Joe is concerned that Obama is going to tax his “make believe” business which will negatively affect his ability to hire “make believe” employees. How does that show that Obama tax plan hurts small businesses? Pretty sure that is the most illogical statement on this long list of uninformed responses. I’m worried that my insurance company won’t cover my surgery, which shows that we should do away with insurance, Presto. Doesn’t work that way.
One more thing, from all the people that were bagging on the couple that had master’s degrees and only made around 77K. You guys ever think that just maybe they chose to enter a field that has better benefits than money, for themselves and us. Check out the average salary for a teacher. I know here in the midwest, the “real America” according to your boy McCain, teachers with advanced degrees still average around 30-40K a year. Not everybody is motivated solely by the green.
- Posted by danI don’t give a rat’s behind about Joe. Here’s what I do care about… ending war… a decent economy… jobs staying in the USA (I HATE talking to foreign customer service centers!) and keeping Sarah Palin as far away from the White House as possible.
- Posted by VickiIs Joe the Plumber coming to campaign in Charlotte, NC anytime soon? I’d like to hear him speak and ask his opinion on the Fed’s Open Market Account and his take the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. I also hope that he’s being well remunerated for his campaign appearances. A man on plumber’s wages can’t afford to take too many breaks from his regular job.
- Posted by Carlos NavarroGood grief, so many of you are having fits over “Joe the
Plumber”, but he isn’t running for president and besides
all he did really was pose a decent hypothetical question
of Sen.Obama.
Admit it, Obama slipped up in answering by revealing his true plan for taxing! No help from his handlers, debate
coaches or handlers that time to obfuscate the truth!
We already have welfare and now a bigger piece is to be
taken from those who work hard and be given to others.
Suggestion: Do what many of us are already doing and
give to a favorite charity or personally help out someone!
Senator Obama how much money personally, have you spared to spread to help the wealth around?
McCain/Palin ‘08
- Posted by littleleersJOE THE PLUMBER-WHAT A JOKE! THIS IS THE BEST THE GOP CAN PLAY WITH? HE CERTAINLY DOESN’T REPRESENT MY MIDDLE CLASS.I DON’T HAVE ANY TAX LIENS OUT ON ME,AND I HAVE NO FRIENDS THAT DO EITHER.I MAKE A LITTLE OVER 50,000 A YEAR-PAY MY TAXES-OH ,AND YEH ,I HAVE A LICENSE TO DO MY JOB.THIS GUY ISN’T EVEN REGISTERED WITH AN APPRENTICESHIP IN HIS STATE.AND HE’S GONNA BUY HIS 250,000 BUSINESS.HEY,PAY YOUR TAXES FIRST!!!!!TYPICAL REALITY T.V.MENTALITY.MCFAILIN’-DESPERATE PEOPLE _TOO LITTLE-TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!!
- Posted by peter bartonAll I know is that we started out with Joe Six Pack and then evolved to Joe the Plumber. This is surreal. I cannot believe that this is how we are framing our political discourse for such an important election. And then I saw this video this morning: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/5d3271b 670/thomas-haden-church-vs-joe-the-plumb er-from-thomas-haden-church
And I think that really highlights how absurd this dialog is!
- Posted by ThomasDo any of us “employed” people work for a business, corporation, etc., with a gross income LESS than $250K?
Hello!!!! It’s the businesses, corporations, etc., that have the $$ that employ us!!!!
- Posted by Kathy TrueJoe’s $250K is the gross income of the business and he is concerned that Obama will tax him so that he doesn’t have enough money to pay his wages, buy equipment, and even hire more help. This shows Obama’s tax plan hurts small businesses while taking money away from Joe to grow his business, it’s that simple. Obama is that used car salesperson you better be careful in dealing. While we have Joe the Plumber we have Barack the Used Care Salesperson..
- Posted by Jon Bridgewater NJ USAYou people are not seeing the real world here. Have you HIRED a plumber lately? Or a mechanic? or a painter? Would you think a horse shoer could make $250,000 a year? NO? Well, I pay my shoer $150 to shoe a horse, which takes him about 45 minutes. He can shoe 8-10-12 horses a day. And with a helper, he could do even more. Go figure it out, My Friends.
- Posted by NancyMy God what has happened to my GOP. This is what we get for nominating such a rouge republican
- Posted by Craig the Engineer[...] Obama’s famed encounter with Joe the Plumber has reignited accusations of socialism. When asked about his burdening tax increases, Obama [...]
- Posted by The Audcaity of Socialism: Obama’s “Robin Hood” economics « Ain’t Nobody Understand UsThinking is good. But you have to be objective and not just let pop thoughts drift off the top of your heads. Joe the plumber presently makes about $40,000 a year, and would benefit from Obama’s tax plan now. Joe has a dream and a vision, not based on reality, of one day owning a business that could possibly be making at least $250,000. Under Obama’s tax initiatives, Joe would benefit from the rest of the 95% of Americans having the ability to get enough of a tax break to be a customer of Joe the Plumber. Plus Joe would get tax breaks for hiring people to work for him. But back to reality Joe, you don’t like the fact that you have to be taxed for anything in America. Is that why you owe about $11,000 in back taxes? As long as you have your 2 guns and a dog, you’re cool.Keep dreaming the American dream Joe.
- Posted by ruffwizardThis post is for Jamie (posted on the 26th).
Jamie, If someone makes more money than you, do you feel that they use more than you? For example, do they drive on the road more than you, or use the public school system more than you? Of course not. What we should have is a flat tax and get rid of any government run organization that is wasteful.
I’m pretty sure that we are all happy to pay our taxes, but not to fund things that are unnecessary.
- Posted by chrisJust because a business makes $250.000.00 does not mean the owner takes home $250.000.00. Out of that comes salaries, business insurance, equipment, property taxes, income taxes, retirement plans, personal health insurance…Geez, you’d think Joe was able to live on 5th Avenue the way many of you are talking. Do you get this critical with pro athletes, celebrities and movie stars? By the way, many of the above don’t work 12 hour days, only to be mocked for being “just a plumber” to make a decent living. And please, don’t get me started on the salaries of politicians. After “serving” in congress for so many years they spend the rest of their lives receiving free health care and a risk free pension the rest of us could only dream about. Most of the time that is fine with me, because I figure if I wanted the same for myself, I would run for office. I don’t want to, so thats that. But don’t begrudge people who make money, THEY are the workers and most of us can still make choices! What a blessing! Rewarding hard work is the American Way! It creates ingenuity! Yea!
- Posted by donna reichenbachIf I were to tell you that raising taxes would, without a doubt, hurt our economy, would you still vote to increase taxes? Well, unfortunately most people don’t realize the back lash of this. If taxes are raised, the owners of companies will not cut their income, they will just pass on the increase to the consumer, or cut jobs - so you and I will end up paying more. Again, the lower income and middle class will feel it the most. We will just be hurting ourselves if taxes are increased. I still don’t understand why it is so difficult to grasp the significance?
I do understand people wanting to make more money, but are unsure how to do it.
Also, government isn’t suppose to be a business. I was born in a communist country, and I can tell you that you do not want more government involvement.
- Posted by ChrisTim,
- Posted by JamieThe answer to your question is that Joe the Plumber should be taxed more because our country needs the money and he can afford to contribute more than a teacher, firefighter, etc. He will still be making a boat load of money paying an extra 3%. Let me ask you this — no one (Republicans) wants to pay taxes and contribute to our society so what should our society run on? Should we just print some extra money at the mint so all the rich people can just keep all of their money and keep getting richer? This year my family will bring in less than half of what we brought in last year because of this economy and the crash of the real estate and new home industry. We could lose everything we worked hard for the past 15 years. However, I still know that I have to contribute what I can afford to contribute because we’re not in this alone.
Geeeeeez. If Joe wants to have no taxes, do what I do: work forty-two hours a week for eight dollars and hour. Then he’ll make less than $20,000 a year and he will have to pay minimum taxes. OR he could butch up, and do what I am on track with doing: go to school, get a job that pays better, eventually own my own business, and pay taxes like every other company that exists. If Joe can’t buy his business this year, or next year, maybe he should just wait another couple of years. Plenty of businesses, including plumbing businesses, make it by regardless of what the taxes are. If taxes go up, do you think ALL plumbing businesses will fall off the planet? NO. And instead of dragging myself down with more taxes while I’m 20 years old, getting no help from my parents financially, and attempting to pay for college, doesn’t it make more sense to tax the guy who’s already well-established? Look at what the McCain stickers are on: Mercedes, Lexus, etc. Obama? Dodges, Kias, etc. Are the poor guys jealous? Yes. But sometimes they can’t drag themselves out of the pit of despair because the richie riches need to get more tax breaks for that new pool or vacation in Tahiti. Sometimes welfare goes to the wrong people. Sometimes food stamps go to the wrong people. But, I’m 20, intelligent, fit… but I wasn’t born into the right family. My parents aren’t paying for any part of my education. My mom drives a bus, my dad fixes cars at the shop him and his brother run (and they are their only employees).
Who “deserves” a tax break? Those who work hard to get where they are at. Those who are trying to succeed. Those who need to just get by until the next paycheck. Joe might deserve less taxes. But where’s the cut-off point? 20 thousand dollars earned a year? Forty? Two hundred and fifty? Two million? I am not an economist, but no broad plan is going to make everybody happy.
Sorry about the rant. Over.
- Posted by JaredHey Guys,
Thought I’d post to this because I noticed that most of the comments were mentioning that Joe is making 250$K at year, that’s not exactly what it’s saying, it said “…Joe is about to buy a plumbing company that is currently making about 250$K a year.” C’mon guys, cut the man some slack! If he wants the company I say Kudos to him! Everyone else is jealous that they’re not gonna make that much!
- Posted by SylkenJoe seems like a nice fellow however this question he raised makes me wonder if he came up with it on his own. Working as a plumbers assistant, how on earth would Joe get the money to consider buying a business with a profit (or even gross income)of $250,000-$270,000 per year. Interestingly, Joe quoted the exact numbers that would place him in the “higher” tax bracket proposed by Senator Obama. This would suggest he has done his homework in some detail before raising the question with Senator Obama. Since he has the exact income details, surely he must know that if he wants to buy such a business he must expect a purchase price of several multiples of the annual income. Where would this money come from? Is he independently wealthy? Would a bank loan such an amount to an unlicensed plumber? Sorry Joe…good try but I don’t buy it!
- Posted by Rita