History is Happening Now

I hate to step on Lee’s excellent blog below on Joe the Plumber, but I just couldn’t resist posting these excerpts from a relevant New York Times article.

First off, the man with the all-American, working-class-sounding name and the all-American, working-class-sounding job is apparently violating the law. Did it occur to John McCain to check into this guy’s record before McCain made Joe the Plumber the mascot of his whole campaign?

Thomas Joseph, the business manager of Local 50 of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters and Service Mechanics, based in Toledo, said Thursday that Mr. Wurzelbacher had never held a plumber’s license, which is required in Toledo and several surrounding municipalities. He also never completed an apprenticeship and does not belong to the plumber’s union, which has endorsed Mr. Obama. On Thursday, he acknowledged that he does plumbing work even though he does not have a license.

Furthermore, Mr. Joe the Plumber has no understanding of Obama’s tax plan.

Mr. Wurzelbacher told reporters that the company he works for, Newell Plumbing & Heating, has two full-time employees: himself and the owner, Al Newell.

Neither Mr. Newell nor Mr. Wurzelbacher responded to telephone calls. And Mr. Wurzelbacher has provided only vague information on his and the company’s finances since talking to Mr. Obama. But if the plumbing business remained a two-person company and the net proceeds — after deductions for business expenses — were shared by the two men, both incomes would most likely fall well below the top tax brackets on which Mr. Obama wants to raise rates, as would the company itself.

Both, in fact, would probably be eligible for a tax cut, said Bob Williams, senior research associate at the independent, nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, though the cut would probably be greater under Mr. McCain’s tax plan than Mr. Obama’s.

According to public records, Mr. Wurzelbacher has been subject to two liens, each over $1,100. One, with a hospital, has been settled, but a tax lien with the State of Ohio is still outstanding.

In his interview with Ms. Couric, Mr. Wurzelbacher, who voted Republican in Ohio’s March primary, said that his encounter with Mr. Obama had been prompted by his desire “to ask one of these guys a question, and really corner them and get them to answer a question for once instead of tap dancing around it. And unfortunately I asked the question, but I still got a tap dance.”

He added, “He was almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr.”

I pay my taxes. Most people I know pay their taxes. I would like to ask Joe the Plumber to please pay his taxes. Is that too much to ask?

I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to ask Joe the Plumber to educate himself about Barack Obama’s tax plan before accusing Obama of “tap dancing” around Joe’s stupid, ignorant questions. That would be too much to ask.

But could you please pay your taxes? And could you please get a plumber’s license? Please?

UPDATE: A CBS news report says Joe the Plumber is acknowledging that Obama’s tax plan wouldn’t force him to pay more in taxes:

Wurzelbacher said Obama’s tax plan wouldn’t affect him right now, because he doesn’t make $250,000. “But I hope someday I’ll make that,” he said.

“If you believed (Obama), I’d be receiving his tax cuts,” Wurzelbacher said. “But I don’t look at it that way. He’d still be hurting others.”

Let me get this straight: Joe the Plumber tells Obama that Obama’s tax plan would prevent him from buying a business. Then John McCain goes on television and tells the whole country that Obama’s tax plan will prevent Joe the Plumber from buying a business — thereby preventing Joe the Plumber from creating new jobs. Then, it comes out that actually Obama’s plan wouldn’t raise Joe the Plumber’s taxes, but would probably reduce them. And this is Joe’s response: “He’d still be hurting others.”

Joe the Plumber is helping John McCain lie to the American public. When confronted with a blatant lie that he started, Joe the Plumber says, “I don’t look at it that way.”

I’m thinking Joe the Plumber will probably vote Republican this year. The Republicans are more his style.