Say it ain't so Joe!!!
I heard part of McCain's new stump speech today...and he is claiming that "Joe The Plumber" will pay higher taxes as a business owner and high income earner under Obama's tax plan. McCain is claiming that Obama wants to take "Joe's" money and spread it around. McCain believes that "Joe" should keep his big bucks and shouldn't have to sacrifice anything. God knows he's suffered enough with the hard times on Wall Street... and shouldn't have to be burdened with anything Patriotic like paying taxes to help rebuild a nation in crisis....as was done after the Great Depression and after WWII with War Bonds, taxes for jobs programs, the New Deal, etc.
But there are a few really big problems with this entire story from McCain.
#1. Joe the Plumber is actually Sam the Plumber.
#2. Sam the Plumber is not actually a Plumber.
-- So now that leaves us with just a Fraud named Sam. Stay with me....
#3. Sam the Fraud is not a business owner... and he's not close to buying any business for which he will have to be concerned with paying taxes on.
#4. Sam the Fraud is not a high income earner. He admitted on 10/16/08, the day after the last debate, that he actually didn't make anything close to the amount of money ($250,000) that would be taxable under Obama's plan.
#5. Sam the Fraud is actually a tax dodger in the State of Ohio.
#6. It's not clear that a business earning $250,000-$280,000 per year would be taxed more... after payroll and operating expenses... he may not fall into the taxable category. But even if he did, the amount of tax on money earned above the $250,000 threshold would be nominal.
The truth is... the plumbing business that Sam was referring to does not even generate $250,000.00 per year in revenue anyway.
#7. Sam (the real Sam, not Joe the Republican creation) will actually pay less income Tax under Obama's plan than under McCain's plan.
To sum up-- what we have here is more BS from the Republican Party. The New York Times, and other News organizations (the few legitimate news services that we have left in this Country) have revealed Joe the Plumber to be a phony. At the least he was misrepresented as someone he's not. And now the McCain campaign is running with this lie as they have done with other lies throughout this entire election season. This is just the latest in a long string of lies. You would think that McCain would check the facts before he co-opts and hijacks a story for political gain... but once again, he has latched on to another fantasy (just like Palin).
As the New York Times has pointed out, Sam is not even a licensed Plumber...so if he's doing this kind of work without a license, he's working illegally. He's also not a member of the local Trade Union (Trade Union guys hate when phony people are stealing work).
So what we are left with, after all the BS, is a guy named Sam who is really a Republican Hack, who was sent to challenge Obama so that McCain could frame this issue and create this narrative for political gain (or someone who the Republicans saw as an opportunity)...either way, he's a hack.
I detected problems with this story early on. Something just didn't smell right. Notice the way that he initially approached Obama and mentioned a convenient figure of "$250,000.00" (he quickly realized his mistake and changed it to a higher number). This seemed too rehearsed. You mean to tell me that the business that he wants to purchase (that he's not really going to purchase because it was a BS story) just happens to cost $250,000.00.... the same amount as Obama's income tax cutoff? Far too coincidental. And wasn't it interesting how much attention McCain gave to it during the debate (and now on the Campaign Trail)? Seems to me that this was all thought out as a strategy before the debate.
Read an interesting article from the San Francisco Chronicle
Keith Olbermann Helps Debunk the "Joe The Plumber" Nonsense
I have a feeling that we'll be hearing more about Joe ...or Sam in the next few days. Of course McCain/Palin will be talking about him.... but that's not what i'm referring to. I'm hoping to hear more confirmation about how much of a phony story this was.
On my drive home tonight.... I was listening to BBC news...and they were in a frenzy over this story as if it was some sort of game changer for John McCain... I guess the Brits haven't received the news that it's a phony story.
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