Joe the Plumber and Obama's Tax Plan

Joe Wurzelbacher, more commonly known as Joe the Plumber, has become a sort of representative of the average American. How did he get the almost celebrity status? It all started when he spoke with Senator Barack Obama at a campaign event in Ohio. When asked “I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes $250,000 to $280,000 a year. Your new tax plan is going to tax me more isn’t it?” Obama replied, “...I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s better for everybody.” If that’s not a socialistic ideology, I don’t know what is.

The definition of socialism is basically “shared wealth and shared productivity.” Unfortunately, history has shown otherwise, the hardest working people are punished while the ones who don't work at all are rewarded. An analogy of that is; say you have two cows, the state takes one cow and gives it to someone who needs the milk more than you, but doesn’t know how to milk it and doesn't want to learn how.

Obama’s tax plan includes taxing the small businesses along with the larger corporations. If he taxes them they, in turn, will jack the prices up for the rest of the nation and fuel his socialistic government.

Anyway, back to Joe the Plumber, who only wanted to buy the business that he is employed by. Under Obama’s plan, he would have higher taxes and not be able to buy his company, thus not fulfilling the American dream. Under McCain’s plan, Joe would be able to buy that business and his taxes would be lower than they would be under Obama.

Obama says that, “Not only do 98% of small businesses make less than $250,000 a year, but I want to give them additional tax breaks. They fuel the economy, generating the most jobs and income.” According to Wurzelbacher, Obama’s statement made him feel uneasy and worried, adding that he still thinks that Obama’s plan would keep him from buying his company and inhibit growth of the business. Businesses are run based on profit vs. loss, so under Obama, those businesses would start firing people to keep up their profits.

If Obama is elected president, our nation will most likely become a socialist republic like Russia, China, and the former Soviet Union. I don’t think we want that to happen to the longest standing constitutional republic since the time of the Romans. The nation deserves a strong leader for president. That leader is Sen. John McCain.

Some articles supporting my view are linked below.
Spreading the Wealth


Who is Joe the Plumber?

Somebody Pull the Hair Plug on This Guy

The author of this article is Ann Coulter, whose credentials include, writing six bestselling books, graduating with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and receiving a J.D. from University of Michigan Law School. Her intended audience is the right wing public, as she is smashing Senator Joe Biden throughout this article.

She is talking about the Vice Presidential debate and Sen. Biden’s many mistakes. Those mistakes weren’t small ones either, they were quite large. For example, Biden said, “we—along with France—we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon.” Hezbollah was never kicked out of Lebanon.

She later gives more examples of some of Biden’s mistakes that include him saying that we should move NATO forces into Lebanon. Lebanon isn’t a NATO country, and has never attacked a NATO country, in fact, the nearest NATO country is Turkey, which is about 700 miles away.

Another of Biden’s mistakes was him saying that, “… We spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan rebuilding that country.” Coulter refers to the Congressional Research Service, saying, since 9-11, we have spent $172 billion in Afghanistan, and $653 billion in Iraq. The most we have spent comes out to be about $3 billion a week, so, by Biden’s calculations, we have only spent about $9 billion in Afghanistan.

One of his biggest mistakes, in my opinion, was him citing Article I of the Constitution, saying that the vice president is part of the executive branch, not the legislative. The vice president is a part of both branches. Article I says that the vice president presides over the senate every day of the week and has a purpose besides just breaking ties.

For someone who has been in the US Senate for 36 years you would think that he would be more knowledgeable about the constitution. Also, for someone that has been in the Senate Foreign policy committee since 1975, you would think that he would know a little more about foreign policy.

We’ve heard little in the media about Sen. Biden’s mistakes, but if Governor Sarah Palin had uttered even one of these mistakes, the media would be all over it for weeks, maybe even months. Such is the state of the present day media, a bunch of left wing reporters and anchors, bloviating constantly about everything.

The Bailout Sacrifices Freedom for Dependency

The author of this editorial is Jeff Sandefer, a special contributor to the Austin American Statesman. He seems quite credible as evidenced by some of his credentials; he founded or co-founded five successful companies, currently he manages Sandefer Capital, an energy investment firm. He was named by BusinessWeek as one of the top Entrepreneurship professors in the United States and earned a MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS from University of Texas. His intended audience for this editorial is the general public based on his use of easy to understand language.

He starts his editorial with a statement that is scary, but true, “Throughout our nation's history, the size and scope of government has grown by leaps and bounds during times of crisis, financial or otherwise.“ He later goes on to quote Margaret Thatcher as saying; “You cannot justify your freedom based on today’s Dow Jones Industrial Average”. Those words ring true today.

The author also states that the political class likes to let the government “bail them out” if there is even a tiny crisis, especially when an election is near. One of his other statements is that people think free markets are “better” because “they work”, and not because they are free.

The author later says letting the politicians and the Federal Reserve “fix” this problem is like telling an arsonist to put out a fire. He also says that, “if the government backs off, the markets will clean themselves up.” Many of the economists agree with him. That statement is supported by Washington Mutual and Wachovia being absorbed by larger banks as opposed to waiting for the government to bail them out.

He closes his editorial with a quote from the great political mind, Benjamin Franklin, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Jeff Sandefer’s logic and evidence is good, his claims are sound and are backed up by the current state of this monetary crisis. In all, this editorial is direct and to the point. I agree with everything he says. A link to the full editorial is below.

Bailout Sacrificing Freedom