Joe Not a Plumber

After the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama a lot of people were saying that the real winner was "Joe the Plumber." This guy, Joe Wurzelbacher, is a real person that McCain offered up as a poster child for criticism of Obama's tax plans. We were told that Joe the Plumber was deferring plans to buy a plumbing business because he expected to pay higher taxes under Obama's plan.

Well, as usual the truth is a bit more complicated. I turns out that Joe is not really a plumber, at least he's not licensed, trained, or registered as one. In fact, the Plumber's Union has attacked him for claiming their profession as his own.

"When you have guys going out there with no training whatsoever, it’s a little disreputable to start with," Mr. Joseph said. "We’re the real Joe the Plumber." (source)

Now it turns out that Joe makes about $40,000 a year and the business he was talking about makes less than $250k and therefore he and his business would receive tax breaks, not hikes, under Obama's plan. He has no specific plans to buy the business he spoke of, this was just a hypothetical case. He does, however, owe about $1,183 in back property taxes! Ah well. You can read all about in in the New York Times...

-t