Joe the Plumber, Barack Obama and Tax Increases
Recently Barack Obama was accosted by Joe Wurzelbacher, a Toledo, Ohio, plumber who had recently gone into business for himself. The exchange they had about taxes illustrates who the real victims of an Obama administration would be.
"Your new tax plan is going tax me more, isn't it?" asked Joe Wurzelbacher.
With his customary smoothness and skill at obfuscation, Barack Obama replied, "It's not that I want to punish your success; I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you that they've got a chance to success, too. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
When Democrats like Barack Obama expound about, "Taxing the rich," they usually want their audiences to imagine some rich, Wall Street fat cat, clad in his thousand dollar Brooks Brother suit, reclining at his twenty million dollar mansion, clipping coupons and thinking of more and better ways to grind down the working man. Barack Obama probably doesn't want people to think of Joe Wurzelbacher, a blue collar guy whose business is fixing clogged drains and plugging leaks.
Joe Wurzelbacher certainly doesn't cotton to being cast in the role of an "economic royalist," to coin a phrase from the New Deal, whose role is to be fleeced to pay for a liberal welfare state. When asked whether his exchange with Obama made him want to support him, Joe Wurzelbacher replied, "No, not at all. His answer actually scared me even more. He said he wants to distribute wealth. And I mean, I'm not trying to make statements here, but, I mean, that's kind of a socialist viewpoint. You know, I work for that. You know, it's my discretion who I want to give my money to, it's not the government decide that I make a little too much and so I need to share it with other people. I just -- that's not the American Dream."
Barack Obama claims that his tax plan would grant "ninety five percent" of the people a tax cut and would only raise taxes on people making a quarter of a million a year. Obama has even deployed a "tax cut calculator" that tries to prove this supposition. Mind, the "tax cut calculator" does not take into account Barack Obama's social security tax increases nor the economic effects of raising taxes on business and on capital gains.
And all that is based on the idea that Barack Obama is telling the truth about his tax plans. It has been pointed out that, as a Senator, Barack Obama had voted for Democratic budgets that would raise taxes on people making at least $42,000 a year. How much does one want to bet that Barack Obama, having been elected, will later go before the American people, as Bill Clinton did before him, and sadly announce that the middle class tax cut is not possible to enact, because of the machinations of his predecessor.
In that case, it will be far more people than just Joe Wurzelbacher the plumber and his fellow economic royalists who will get fleeced. "Spreading the wealth?" Karl Marx expressed the sentiment more accurately. "From each according to his ability. To each according to his need.
"Source: Questions Over Obama's Off-the-Cuff Remark, Fox News, October 15th, 2008
Published by Mark Whittington
Mark R. Whittington is a writer residing in Houston, Texas. He is the author of The Last Moonwalker, Children of Apollo, Dark Sanction, and Nocturne. He has written numerous articles, some for the Washington... View profile
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16 Comments
Post a CommentAnd less than another 100 years later, another Fed manipulated depression. It's the bankers that run this country, people, with our government leaders merely their lackeys since they committed that fraud upon the public to begin with - the 16th and 17th Amendments, and Federal Reserve Act.
The 16th Amendment is the biggest fraud on the American people ever. It was assumed by the founders that any anticipated amendments to the U.S. Constitution would be present to "the people" for their vote, or at the very least public hearings, at the state level. That is why the state ratification process was included to begin with - so that the most local government (the states) would place anticipated amendments before the people and would then the state legislatures would "ratify" it if the people so consented. The Federal Reserve Act was passed contrary to the Constitution (since Congress is the only entity given the authority to print and value currency) by an Act of Congress, and not an amendment, so thus it is also unconstitutional. All these amendments took place in 1913....with the Depression the result...
McCain's a hippocrite....since in Arizona due to his developer buddies and his support of an illegal immigrant amnesty in order to continue to provide them with an unending supply of workers they can exploit, and soldiers to die for his and Bush's lost cause and unconstitutional "offensive" war, at this point - Joe the Plumber won't have to worry about Obama socializing his wealth - he won't have any, nor a job or business at all - since most of the plumbers now in Arizona are the illegals he courts!
Hey hasn't Obama already lowered their definition of rich to 200k? Whats next? 150, 100, 75? Scary that he has already changed the status before even getting elected. Welcome to higher taxes everyone, have no doubt about it.
Are you smoking crack ?
The Obama tax plan is NOT as you and many on the right claim ... as usual the neo new right is out of material and has to resort to attacks with no basis, and downright false and is the usual tack of - fear mongering. The tax plan that you speak of is McLames plan, which is surprise surprise, just like Bushes ... additional cuts for the top 2%. Clinton's tax plan worked, and Obama's is actually better than his. Its all about creating jobs, strengthening the US market as a whole and bringing jobs back to America, and taxing the corporation that have put p. o. boxes in the Caymans and refuse to pay their fair share or any share for that matter. AS usual the right is cuddling up to the extremist right wing evangelicals, promising this and that, which they have never got or ever will get what they truly want a society full of low information voters, that back something without even researching . Typical racist middle aged white America... A perfect example of why
Summary of Obamas Plan.
The poor will get poorer.
The middle class will get poor.
The rich will stay rich.
Simple..we have tried obamas plan before and that is what took place.
Good luck obama supporters...see you in the bread line..maybe i'll sell you some of my bread? that's right, youll be broke so you cant have any.
Me and my wife may never get to see an combined annual income of $250,000.00 in this lifetime. With our combined income of $75,000.00 we sure would like to see our taxes decrease.
If you want to treat everyone equally then fix the tax code so that everyone pays the same percentage. Don't screw over the upper middle class who actually worked hard for the money they earn just so that you can spite the "rich" and feel like a saint for "helping the less fortunate." My uncle is dirt poor, he works two jobs around 80 hours a week and makes next to nothing but he's keeping himself up on his own two feet and has never asked for a handout from anyone. Why should my father be forced to give up his hard earned money to a government that could misuse it or in a best case scenario give it to someone I've never met when my uncle is barely scraping by. Why can't we give some of our income to him rather than giving it to the government (the biggest misuser of money I can possibly think of).
I agree. The problem is that everyone keeps saying "The Rich" not everyone who makes $250,000 is rich. My father makes more than that. But we aren't rich, he's only recently achieved the position where he makes that much. Yet because of it our property taxes are through the roof, he pays around 50% in income tax, and even though he's 60 and at a massively stressful job he won't be able to retire for quite some time. Namely because my sister and I get ZERO financial aid for college because we're considered "rich" all in all he has to pay the majority of he salary just on taxes, the mortgage, college payments and car payments. That doesn't include any cost of living expenses and you're telling me he is obligated to give up more than HALF of what he earns to people we dont' even know and we have no idea if they're even trying to better themselves with that money. I agree that the insanely wealthy who make tens of millions do often get around the tax system. That's the problem if yo
Ma'am, you are uninformed. The correct facts are that wealthy people DO pay the largest percentage of their income in taxes in this country. Yes, there are some loopholes, but they do not amount to even a blip on the economic radar screen. What this country needs, but is politically incorrect to say, is a ressurgence of personal responsibility. We should always strive to help those who truly cannot help themselves, but the truth is that there is a whole class of people in this country who just simply don't want to work their way to success and who find it convenient to blame the "Rich" for their problems. The "Rich" in this country are the people who are responsible for innovation, job growth and yes, tax revenues. The fact that these hard working people, who have taken action in their lives, are vilified in this day and age is a testament to the dependent society that Democrats have been working toward for decades. The recent Mortgage crisis is no exception. If we could only