There’s actually an error in this report. Joe doesn’t own the company he works for, Newell Plumbing, which may be in trouble for having Joe work in an area neither are licensed for.
Turns out that “Joe the Plumber,” as he became nationally known when Senator John McCain made him a theme at Wednesday night’s third and final presidential debate, may run a plumbing business but he is not a licensed plumber. His full name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher. And he owes a bit in back taxes.
The premise of his question to Mr. Obama about taxes may also be flawed, according to tax analysts.
An official at Local 50 of the plumber’s union, based in Toledo, said Mr. Wurzelbacher does not hold a license. He also has never served an apprenticeship and does not belong to the union. (The national plumber’s union, the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters, and Service Mechanics, endorsed Mr. Obama, it should be noted.)
“He’s basically playing games with the world,” Thomas Joseph, the local’s business manager, said in a telephone interview Thursday morning.
[…]
“All contractors are licensed, and he does not have a license, either as a contractor or a plumber,” the union official said, citing a search of government records. “I can’t find that he’s ever even applied for any kind of apprenticeship, and he has never belonged to local 189 in Columbus, which is what he claims on his Facebook page.”According to public records, Mr. Wurzelbacher has been subject to two liens, each over $1,000, one of which — a personal tax lien — is still outstanding.
And his question to Mr. Obama about paying taxes? According to some tax analysts, if Mr. Wurzelbacher’s gross receipts from his business is $250,000 — and not his taxable income — then he would not have to pay higher taxes under Mr. Obama’s plan, and probably would be eligible for a tax cut.
Mr. Wurzelbacher is registered to vote in Lucas County under the name Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher.
Since his name is spelled wrong, doesn’t that mean he can’t vote?
And in case you hear about the supposed connection between Robert M. Wurzelbacher of Milford, OH and Charles Keating’s son-in-law of the same name, forget it.
Thanks to Misanthropic Scott
#31 – Ah_yea
The whole thing with Obama and the “Plubmer” is just a pipe dream on McBush’s part. The guy said his COMPANY makes $250,000/yr, not that HE makes that amount. He doesn’t seem mentally quick enough to realize that the COMPANY’S revenue is NOT THE SAME THING as his pay.
If it weren’t for McBush trying to drag him into the spotlight, nobody would know that he’s a bullshit artist, the only way he’s going to buy the company is in his dreams, he doesn’t have a plumber’s license, and he’s dodging the IRS.
#32 J
>>Won’t make enough to be affected?
Have you never witnessed government in action? The 250k is just a starting point. Obama will eventually get to your salary level and at that point you will be one of the people crying what happened?
#33 Bahramaks
You may hope McCain loses, but as they say it ain’t over till it’s over.
Why would the repugs use a plant with so many horrible things in his past, knowing the MSM and leftie bloggers would go nuts unearthing information about him?
Obama admitted his true intentions to a man in a crowd. The man doesn’t have to be perfect. He’s an imperfect man who asked a perfect question.
Joe has some serious faults, but he didn’t make Obama say anything that Obama himself doesn’t believe or aspire to implement as President. I see a lot of people going after Joe with the misplaced idea that it will heal/cover/deflect the damage Obama inflicted upon HIMSELF.
Joe struck a nerve. That’s clear.
“Joe the Plumber has now had more press conferences than Sarah Palin.” – Andrew Sullivan
# 35 contempt
And the government has aliens at Area 51. LOL
He is already at my salary level. So I will be paying more in taxes and like I said my life style won’t change one bit.
Pay no attention to the O tax policy behind the curtain….that’s right…stay focused on big bad Joe the Plumber…nothing to see over here…
Who would have guessed? You question a liberal politician on his proposed policies then the unions and mainstream media try to destroy your life. That is left wing politics in America. Obama has powerful allies ready to destroy all who raise doubts.
I am sure the IRS is looking into all his back records as well. He WILL be audited this year.
Uncle dave said,
“There’s actually an error in this report. Joe doesn’t own the company he works for, Newell Plumbing,”
Right. He said he wanted to BUY a company. And in doing so was worried that under Omama, his taxes would go up if he made over the amount that Omama decided put you in the “rich American” category.
#39 J
>>my life style won’t change one bit.
You live in a dream world don’t you? You do know about Obama’s Global Poverty Plan, don’t you?
# 41 Barney5 # 42 Mark T. # 37 realmother # 36 GF
Let me tell you all.
You are pretending like this guy is innocent. He is not. He fucks over regular working people by skirting around the law and not spending the time to earn a license or training and then by not paying his taxes. Then he complains about taxes he won’t ever have to pay. That is an insult to those of us that do pay.
I bet if he were a Democrat you would eat him alive. So, stop being a bunch of paste eaters and stop pretending that this is some kind of injustice against an innocent man. He knew very well what he was doing and it backfired!!!!
If you want to back tax dodgers and people who break the law to get ahead be my guest. Us liberals choose to think people should have to follow the rules and work hard to get ahead.
#43 – O’Pinocchio
He must be wacked out on acid if he thinks that HE, personally, is going to make $250K/yr as an unlicense plumber in some rust-belt suburb of Toledo. And he freely admits that he has “no plan” to buy the business.
He’s one of them thar trailer trash who vote for the Repugs because they don’t like darkies, beaners, A-Rabs, or anyone who woud be turned down for membership in the Aryan Nation.
It’s obvious he didn’t understand Obama’s tax policy (HE is never going to pay more taxes), but even if he did, he’s still probably vote for McBush just because.
#46 “He must be wacked out on acid if he thinks that HE, personally, is going to make $250K/yr”
I know a guy who owns a chimney sweep bus in SoCal (almost no one uses their chimneys and most residences don’t have a chimney) and he makes more than twice that.
So an owner of a plumbing Co culd EASILY out do that if he is a decent business person. Also, getting a contractor’s license is trivial if you have 5+ years working under a lic contractor…
But, you know this of course…
#45 “I bet if he were a Democrat you would eat him alive. So, stop being a bunch of paste eaters and stop pretending that this is some kind of injustice”
No, repub, green or dem, I applaud him for making a living despite stupid gov’t regulations. If the founding Fathers had thought that some day you’d need a gov’t issued license to build something for someone they’d have puked.
#48 Paddy-O
If the founding fathers had thought that some day someone like George W Bush or Sarah Palin would running for office, they would have packed up and gone back to Europe.
#49 “If the founding fathers had thought that some day someone like George W Bush or Sarah Palin”
I know! Imagine if they found out about “redistribute the wealth” Omama! LOL. They’d just drop dead!
#47 – O’Pinocchio
>>I know a guy who owns a chimney sweep bus in
>>SoCal (almost no one uses their chimneys and
>>most residences don’t have a chimney) and he
>>makes more than twice that
Yeah. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh, O’Pinocchio. A half-million a year, providing a service almost nobody needs or wants. Your nose is getting so long you won’t be able to fit in your car.
According to Copperfield Chimney Supply and SNEWS — The Chimney Sweep’s News Magazine, the average price to sweep a to sweep a single-story masonry fireplace is $90 a pop. That means your buddy would have to sweep almost 6000 chimenys a year just to bring in $500,000 GROSS income. So assuming he has no employees, and no business expenses, he’d have to sweep about 25 chimineys a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year to bring in that amount of money.
Every time you post a message, O’Pinocchio, another rain forest dies from all the wood it takes to build out that massive nose of yours.
As to getting a license, he doesn’t work under a licensed plumber, and the business does not have a license.
This story turns from nothing at all into a national scandal as the right wingnuts try to backpedal and explain things away.
Hilarious. Or as you would say: “LOL”.
#50 They’d probably have dropped dead just because hes black. At least he’s not a moron like GWB and SP.
#52 “At least he’s not a moron like GWB and SP.”
No, just a person who wants to confiscate free citizens wealth. Jefferson would have declared him a tyrant and had him killed.
#53 Paddy
If some government clown is gonna rob me blind, my personal pride would rather they weren’t morons.
Personally I’ve nothing against wealth distribution. The obscenely rich need a good dose of class warfare to realize exactly where the power in society really resides. If I was you, Paddy-O, I would be more worried about the cooperations getting their claws on your precious tax dollars than those who need it to feed their kids.
# 48 Paddy-O
“No, repub, green or dem, I applaud him for making a living despite stupid gov’t regulations. ”
He is breaking the fucking law!!! A law intended to protect the public from people who with their lack of knowledge cause damage that may not surface for years.
It is not ok to just break the law. Then to think you should benefit more than those that follow the law is insulting.
Contempt – “Have you never witnessed government in action? The 250k is just a starting point. Obama will eventually get to your salary level and at that point you will be one of the people crying what happened?”
Why is is when people express concern about the erosion of civil liberties and illegal actions of out government the Republican defense response is “Youre paranoid, the president would never abuse absolute power. You have nothing to fear unless you’re guilty of something. Why do you hate america?”
Funny, the government can blatantly take your freedom and you submit. But threaten to have people pay a share in the improvement of our nation and you get testy.
#58 JJ said, “He is breaking the fucking law!!!”
As all of the Founding Father did. I’m sure you would have rather had them obey the LAW!!!
I wouldn’t.
Caveat emptor.
It’s simple for a person to be protected by requiring a person have liability ins if they work on your home. A license does nothing to protect the homeowner. Only insurance does…
http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1/2008/10/16/joe-wurzelbacher-taxes-health-insuranc/
>I would be more worried about the cooperations getting their claws on your precious tax dollars than those who need it to feed their kids.
Another reason to oppose the estate tax, which Obama would increase.
#65 – Lyin’ Mike
>>Another reason to oppose the estate tax,
>>which Obama would increase.
Good for him if he does. If those trust fund babies inherit tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in unearned capital gains (which have never been taxed), they can damn well pay the fucking taxes on their pot of gold.
Why do you care, anyway? It’s not like you or anyone you know is going to bequeath or inherit enough money to worry about estate taxes.
# 62 Paddy-O
“As all of the Founding Father did. I’m sure you would have rather had them obey the LAW!!!”
So you believe in anarchy? Or maybe you believe in a Revolution? We don’t get to pick the laws we obey if we want social order.
The founding fathers had good reason to break those laws. Are you saying that being required to get a license to perform an important service is equivalent to taxation with out representation? Dipshit!!
What about drug dealers? Is it ok for them to break the law while selling drugs? How about restaurants? Should it be ok if they don’t follow the laws when preparing your food? Hell maybe cops shouldn’t follow any laws either and just shoot people who speed?
Your argument about the founding fathers not only show you have no knowledge of your country but it is dishonest and a straw man.
“It’s simple for a person to be protected by requiring a person have liability ins if they work on your home. A license does nothing to protect the homeowner. Only insurance does…”
You can’t get the insurance without the the license you fucking dolt!!! AND business insurance doesn’t cover you when you are breaking the law!!!!
He must be racist, too. After all, he challanged Yomama’s tax policy. The only reason anyone does that is if they hate blacks.
# 65 MikeN
“Another reason to oppose the estate tax, which Obama would increase.”
There really is no such thing as estate tax. IT IS INCOME TAX!!!!!!! Call it what ever you want but it it INCOME TAX!!!!
When someone dies and leaves all their stuff to someone else. It is a transfer of wealth. That is defined as INCOME to those that receive it. It is not double taxation any more than you company paying tax on the money they earn and then transferring it to you in the form of pay and then you pay tax on it.
Anyone bitching about it is a greedy fucking pig!!!!!
#67 JJ said, “We don’t get to pick the laws we obey if we want social order. ”
Right. I agree. We just need to obey laws no matter if they are right or wrong, immoral or moral.
Here’s a quote that should be familiar with:
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is natural manure.”
J, my point still stands. Anyone that opposes a liberal politician is in for a rectal probing by the left. I never said the guy was in the right.
This time, the guy has a valid argument. In order to do an end run around it, they will trash the guy.
The mainstream will dig and dig until they hit pay dirt. They do this to EVERYONE that disagrees with them. You disagree with the left, they will dig until they find something for which you can be either be charged in a court of law or that will make everyone dismiss anything that the person has to say, no matter how true it may be.
If they don’t like the message, their knee jerk reaction is to kill the messenger. Count on it like death and taxes.