Quotations From Chairman Joe

Lately we've been hearing much made of a fellow named Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher, a/k/a Joe the Plumber. 

Parenthetically, I must confess that I am not among those who watched the last presidential debate, because I already have a pretty good idea of what the candidates stand for. You've got to remember this is Iowa, where we road test and sometimes proof test the crop of presidential wannabes and weed out the obvious losers for the rest of the country....where was I?

Oh yes. Joe the Plumber.  Much was made of Joe the Plumber by the McCain campaign.

The muzzle seems to be on the Pit Bull the last few days as the campaign desperately tries to shift public attention from last week's "Treason! Kill him!" rallies that would have made Julius Streicher proud. 

They went over like a turd in a punchbowl with the general public. That much is obvious.

Seems that this all started in Toledo, Ohio, where Joe Wurzelbacher, this week's 'man in the Clapham omnibus", asked Barack Obama a question about taxes that was more of a statement: 

"I want to buy a business and you're going to raise my taxes." 

And he's a very engaging, articulate fellow too, who looks pretty good on camera as well. 

But nevermind.

Joe said "You've really got to find out the facts." 

So we took him at his word. 

Here are some trenchant quotes. It's all on youtube, folks. Find out the facts.

Obama is a great speaker and I think a lot of people could get fooled by that.

My mind's been made up for a long time.

Social security's a joke. I have one set of parents and I don't need another. I hate that it's forced on me.

To take the money that I've worked for and redistribute it to other people who don't deserve it or haven't worked as hard as I have, that's the mark of socialism to redistribute wealth, that's what Karl Marx said.

Parenthetically, I guess this is why Joe owes $1100 or so in back taxes to Ohio that he hasn't paid. 

I had already heard his (Obama's) answer six or seven times.

I don't remember (registering with the Natural Law Party).

I’m kind of like Britney Spears having a headache. Everybody wants to know about it.

I don't like a lot of attention.

Now. 

If Joe were to buy the plumbing business, AND it makes more than $250,000 a year in pure, unalloyed profit above expenses, AND he reports all of that as income, THEN the incremental tax rate increase would rise three per cent. 

But none of that has happened yet. Joe doesn't own the business and he hasn't made the $250,000-which the great majority of plumbers never do, either. He works for a guy who owns the business. 

It's a hypothetical construct, and if you buy the business and you can't figure a way to bury a niggling three per cent of the profits, you're no kind of a small businessman. 

Joe, people who make more than $250,000 per year have people on retainer who are tasked with making sure that they don't pay a penny more in taxes than they have to. They're called accountants. They get paid to do this sort of work, just like you get paid to glue together PVC pipe and sweat copper.

Now...Joe's a nice enough fellow who doesn't like attention, and it does seem as if it's been forced on him a little. 

We'll be listening to see what you've got to say on Mike Huckabee's radio show Saturday, Joe.

Does that sound like a man who doesn't like attention?

My prediction is that your fifteen minutes of fame will expire right after Meet the Press on Sunday.

Stay tuned.

Image courtesy of Speedy the Plumber. When pipe's being laid in Chicago, Speedy's da man.