Oct

23

2008

I’m Joe the Plumber (Part II) “It’s the socialism, stupid!”

by Doug

Here’s a new ad from the McCain campaign:

 

 

And here’s my story. You see, I really am Joe the Plumber, too…

Hi, my name is Doug the welder. In many ways, I am like Joe the Plumber– Although I am at the point where I DO own my own business, and Joe isn’t quite there yet, the “dream” or goal of independence and self-reliance continues. Having started our small business with my wife during the recession of the late Eighties/early Nineties, we have long held the goal of  building an enterprise as nearly recession-proof as possible, and always tried to be as frugal during good times as in bad in order to stay as fiscally healthy as one could reasonably be. With a sound business model and good employees, we seem poised to ride out the current economic storminess. We know that it will require no small amount of work and yes, maybe (no- not maybe, definitely, because there ALWAYS is) even some heartache, along the way. That’s OK, as this is the essence of being a small business operator—and always has been. I suspect that Joe the Plumber is well aware of all of that—he has probably watched his boss encounter it all through the years—and yet, he still retains his dream. Why is that? Could it be that for him, like me, that his “pursuit of happiness” includes controlling his own destiny?

Democratic presidential wannabee Barack Obama tells everybody not to worry… only those making over $250,000 will pay more taxes. His running mate Joe Biden says he doesn’t know many plumbers that make over 250 grand. Of course, as always, the devil’s in the details. Now just so there’s know misunderstanding, I don’t “make” over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. As a matter of fact, there have been many times since 1989 that I didn’t make anything—and there were a few times where I actually lost money. But where we stand now, like any small business employing nine people with perks and benefits that owns the real estate (and pays those taxes too) and multiple machines and pieces of equipment (always subject to breakdown and repair costs), we “handle” far in excess of the figure being bandied about—but we don’t put much of it in our wallets—it’s always “in play.” This is where Joe the Plumber and Doug the welder are vulnerable—on the books we handle the money, but at no time is much of it really ours to keep. Of course, I won’t lie, and I’m sure I can safely bet that Joe, like me, and probably many of you reading this column, certainly would like to earn more than a quarter million dollars that we can keep and spend as we choose, someday. What’s wrong with that?

Of course there’s nothing wrong with that. And I, like Joe the plumber, know that attaining such a princely sum won’t be easy, because we both know that someone like the tooth fairy isn’t going to show up during the night and slip the cash under the pillow. If we are to earn that amount, we are going to have to take great risk, work extra hard, and sacrifice a bit of leisure and play time. In exchange for a willingness to do these things, we reap the fruits of our labors. This is the American way. Up until now, that is… 

You see, Barack Obama’s going to change all that. Once in office, in concert with the Democratic-controlled Congress, President Obama and his sidekick Biden will see to it that things will be different from now on. Because in addition to Joe Biden stating his belief that is “patriotic” to pay taxes, we have found out, thanks to the answer given to Joe the Plumber’s question of Barack Obama, just what they have in store for those of us that work and strive to make money… what their promised “change” really means.

This is how John McCain told the story this past Saturday during his weekly radio address:

“Joe explained that he works for a small plumbing and heating company. He’s been thinking about maybe taking over the business when his boss retires. Problem is, that would make Joe one of millions of small business owners who face a sudden increase in taxes under my opponent’s tax plan.”

McCain continued:

“That didn’t seem fair to Joe. He wanted to know why Barack Obama plans to raise taxes on folks who are trying to start or grow a business and create jobs for others. And fairness aside, at a time of serious economic crisis, punishing job creators didn’t seem like a real good way to kick-start a recovery.”

And then the Republican nominee put his finger on the nub of the whole story:

“My opponent’s answer showed that economic recovery isn’t even his top priority. His goal, as Senator Obama put it, is to ‘spread the wealth around.’ You see, he believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that help us all make more of it. Joe, in his plainspoken way, said this sounded a lot like socialism. And a lot of Americans are thinking along those same lines. In the best case, ‘spreading the wealth around’ is a familiar idea from the American left. And that kind of class warfare sure doesn’t sound like a ‘new kind of politics.’”

To Mr. Obama’s claim that he will cut income taxes for 95 percent of Americans, McCain asked,

“How do you cut income taxes for 95 percent of Americans, when more than 40 percent pay no income taxes right now? How do you reduce the number zero?”

Of course, the answer is really simple, once you think about it for a moment: Since you can’t reduce taxes on those who pay zero, the government will write them all checks called a tax credit. Where do you suppose that money will come from?  There’s only one place: from the paychecks of working people that DO pay taxes, including a lot of folks just like Joe. And me. And my hard-working employees.

Barack Obama’s wife, one of the people he lists as someone he goes to for input on difficult decisions said,

“The truth is, in order to get things like Universal Health Care and a revamped Education System, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of the pie so that someone else can have more.”

Think about that. How many of you reading this really want to put in extra effort to get ahead and live the American dream if, when you do, someone comes and takes it away? Why bother? That’s what this election is really all about: socialism. And it took a plumber named Joe to bring out the truth…

 

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  • Elise

    Well said. Joe the Plumber may be our only hope for McCain winning the election. McCain is finally hitting on an issue that people really care about and I think it may be his key to success.

  • Michael Kitch

    Since 1916 this country has had a progressive income tax, which has redistributed income and wealth in a variety of ways to a variety of constituencies. If this is socialism, America has been a socialist country for nearly a third of its history — and throughout the so-called “American century.” The only thing Joe the Plumber knows about taxes is that he owes them — and others are paying his share.

  • Michael Kitch

    Excuse me. Since 1913.

  • mer

    Mitch, give me $50. I know how to spend it better than you do. Share the wealth man.

  • Bill, San Jose, CA

    There are many critical echnical erros about small business tax in this articles.
    1. The tax is based on the small business on the profit, not the revenues. All the payroll/benefits, operation cost are deductable from small business incomes.
    2. If a small business employ people, the small business will get very nice tax credit to more than overcompensate tax increases if the president-elect tax policy is implemented.
    3. The tax code today is already progressive. The president-elect said only the portion of net income over $250,000 for a couple ($200,000 for single) will be tax at 3% higher than what it is today’s under president Bush’s tax cut.
    4. AMT already bites more in today’s tax code for income.
    5. Under president Bush, the Fed goverment spending balloon from a surplus to more than 10 trillions dollars. The tax cut is about 1.2 trillons now and 1.8 trillons if it ends in 2012 . One can argue the tax cut is paid entirely by debt, the borrowed money. If the president Bush’s trickle-down economic worked, we should have seen a surplus instead of astronomical debts. To me, give most middle class a hundreds of dollor a year and majority tax cut went to top 3% of the real wealthy people.
    6. The presdient-elect tax credit to folks that does not pay income tax is not a total handout since it requires those folks to do some community services.
    6. Last but not least, if what our president-elect tax proposal amounts Socialism, then any progressive tax is Socialism. Only flat tax or consumption based tax are not. This means long time ago our govement was already Socialist goverment.
    I agree that depending on the location where people live, the family that earns $250,000 either can live like king or simply a middle (and not upmiddle calss). My wife and I are both work more than 14 years as engineers in Silicon Valley. We earn more than $250,000 a year. Yet we are not rich because the cost of living here are one of the highest in the nation and AMT tax hurts us as salaried employee because we cannot deduct any expanse compared to small businnes. We incurred the highest taxiation in the nation. We don’t get to deduct many things other folks can because the AMT.
    Despite we will see our tax increase, we voted the president-elect Obama, like majority college edudated professional in this nation, especially in knowledge based industries (the exit pool shows college edudated voter voted more than 10 point for Senator Obama than for Senator MaCain). If you look at the electoral map, even in the redest states, the area is blue where college educated prfessional concentrate. This is far more pronounced in California. We voted almost 20 points more to Senator Obama than to Senator MaCain. If you look at California, the rural areas are red and costal area are deep blue. The other states exhibit the same pattern.
    And don’t tell us the college educated people do not use brain (in fact, my wife and I have advanced graduate degree we use our brain for living) and we do not look after our slef-interest or do math (yes, we do, far better than others). We don’t like tax just as almost all the people. The only difference is, perhaps, we add a few other things in the equation. We think it is absolute immoral and despicable to pay for our generation or older largeness using the borrowed the money that our children have to pay. And also in the corner of heart we always want the less fortunates get government help since even we aspirate to achive more of the American dream, we also aware we could fall to become the less fortunates in case of some unforeseen events beyond our control.

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