This is too funny - Joe the plumber

[JonLP24]

An Associated Press article revealed that Wurzelbacher does not have a plumber's license or apprenticeship.<12> He claimed he does not need a license because he works for someone else. Lucas County, where Wurzelbacher and his employer reside, requires plumbers who perform work including sanitary drainage, water supply, storm drainage, and natural gas piping, to have licenses.<13> Neither Wurzelbacher nor his employer are licensed there, said Cheryl Schimming of Lucas County Building Regulations, which handles plumber licenses in parts of the county outside Toledo.<1><11> Local 50 of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters and Service Mechanics, whose membership endorsed Obama, indicated that Wurzelbacher applied for an apprentice program in 2003 but never completed the work.<14>

Wurzelbacher is one of two employees of a small plumbing firm, Newell Plumbing and Heating Co. of Toledo.<5> This is the company he described to Obama as making more than $250,000 per year.<11> He reported that the idea of buying the company was discussed during his job interview six years prior.<1> According to MSNBC, "While Wurzelbacher told Obama that he would be taxed at a higher rate because the company grossed more than $250,000 a year, Ohio business records show the company’s estimated total annual revenue as only $100,000. Actual taxable income would be even less than that." <15>Court record report that Wurzelbacher made $40,000 in 2006.<10>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_the_plumber
Joe "the plumber" would actually benefit under an Obama presidency more then he would under McCain. Not only that he is fraud and from other links I find out he is a close relative of Keating's son-in-law and has failed to pay his taxes and he isn't even a real plumber. Not to mention his company doesn't even make $250,000 :rofl: A big slap in McCain's joke of a campaign.

[Incitatus]

1. Maybe it does gross more but100k was all the owner reported.

Does anyone here work for the IRS? :-)

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. He obviously chose $250,000-$280,000 because Obama starts taxing at the higher rate

at $250,000.

The man's an outright liar. That little company of his buddy is one of the 98% of small businesses that net less than $250,000 a year, and no development in the next decade is likely to change that. A liar, then, and an idiot, since he would actually benefit from an Obama Presidency.

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. Proprietorships get taxed on gross income, NOT net.

You have to hire an accountant to write everything off as a business expense.

As an unlicensed tradesman who works as an electrical assistant, AND someone who co-founded a small business (nonprofit!) that requires an infusion of (guess what?) $250,000 to survive (it is fortunately incorporated so does not have to list the gross as taxable income), I should know.

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. It's not funny at all. Stop trying to ruin the life of a working-man.

Why don't you go after all the people who hire immigrants for scab wages instead of paying everyone the same scale.

Oh, I forgot, the Brotherhoods don't WANT people outside their union paid on their scale.

They are killing the union movement with their Knights of Labor mentality.

And people rampant on DU are killing the left with their unvarnished hatred of low-paid, unlicensed tradesmen.

Guess who installed your sink.

[Leopolds Ghost]

5. Joe the Plumber is reconsidering support for McCain/Obama.

Of course, nobody on the blogosphere will do anything but snark if he votes for Obama.

As the guy from the Nation on KO seemed to suggest, Dems do not seem to need or want the white working class.

They are anti-left bourgeois liberals who want everyone to be well-educated professionals
paid big bucks like folks on DU are paid to do work that will be considered typistry in 20 years time.

The exact same as the lottery mentality of the working class, shifted down a notch.

Or work that NEVER WAS OR IS unionized because they have the same insular mentality about
who is qualified to enroll in classes to do it (architects, lawyers, etc.) You can only
have so many licensed plumbers, you see. They don't give the rest cards!!!

[livelongandprosper]

9. He is not reconsidering anything. He is a right wing liar

who wanted to "corner" Obama (his word) and made up a bunch of bull about his own life and Obama's tax plan.

I hate dishonest pols, scribes and voters. They make our political culture disgusting .

[deutsey]

12. It does seem now that Joe was talking out of his ass

That's what irks me, that and his knee-jerk reactionary mentality that sells out his own interests in support of corporatist toadies like McCain.

Obama's plan is "marxist" or "socialist," he claimed. Where is he getting that rhetoric from? From the rightwing elites that don't want him to realize that 1) Obama's plan will actually benefit him and 2) that democratic forms of socialism are a helluva lot better for society in general than raw free market capitalism.

I'm from the working class (working poor, really), and it baffles me that people like Joe aren't aware or don't seem to care that they're being duped, played for suckers.

[JonLP24]

6. I haven't done anything

I'm just restating facts that are already out there released by others, not me. I wish I had that kind of power. However, McCain is the one who made him famous and used him as an example of a middle class citizen that will be hurt by Obama's tax policy which is completely untrue. If McCain intended on being truthful in the first place he wouldn't of even mentioned his name.

[dchill]

10. "Guess who installed your sink." - I did.

All three of them. So what? You're "standing up" for a guy who would never give you a second thought. He ruined his own little "arrangement" by approaching Barack Obama with an inflated story of his employment situation, and an outright lie about his party affiliation, yet Obama engaged him on a serious level. His life is not ruined - and even if it were, it would be the fault of NO ONE on DU. And I've seen no hatred, unvarnished or varnished, of anyone here on DU.

[riverdeep]

13. You must have missed this thread:

("Joe, you stupid fucking cockroach ..... man, you fucked up big time, buddyboy.")
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=4250520

re: "And I've seen no hatred, unvarnished or varnished, of anyone here on DU."

The referenced post is a bit over the top. However, most posts have been concerned about the substance of the issue, and just what the whole deal with him is that we aren't being told.

[dchill]

14. That's not hatred.

Come on.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Hey! Why take Wikip*dia's word on what is "true" or not?

Why not stop over at the Truthiness Encyclopedia and enter your facts about "Joe the plumber"?

Everyone is invited, anyone can edit, but it is recommended you register (it's free) so no one can see you IP address.

Here is the link: http://www.wikiality.com/Joe_the_plumber

[JonLP24]

8. The references are linked to reputable sources

Besides I just heard KO pretty much say the same thing not long after I posted this.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJsPHiQlgYvAsrHz9mvHJlezQJLwD93RONUO0
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081017/ap_on_re_us/joe_the_plumber;_ylt=Avwwyr5JRUHYIXm2bhAYz5RH2ocA
http://www.contractor-licensing.com/ohio/plumbing-license.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603614_2.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27221645/

[ColbertWatcher]

11. That was a joke.

The Truthiness Encyclopedia is also a satirical site, where you can post just about anything you want.

Even stuff about "Joe" that no one knows (hint, hint).