As Joe the Plumber Grows Famous, the Politics Get Murkier
As Joe the Plumber Grows Famous, the Politics Get Murkier
By JONATHAN WEISMAN and ILAN BRAT
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122418790649541967.html
Joe the Plumber is the newest celebrity on the presidential campaign trail after his star turn in the presidential debate. Both sides rushed to embrace him on Thursday, even though the real Joe doesn’t make a clear case for either political camp.
Joe Wurzelbacher, the Holland, Ohio, plumber who became the central character in several sharp exchanges between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, held impromptu press conferences in his front yard, appeared on national morning talk shows and offered the nation his political prognostications. He called Social Security “a joke” and said: “I have parents. I don’t need another set of parents called the government.”
Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as “Joe the Plumber,” the nickname John McCain gave him during Wednesday’s debate, walks to a neighbor’s home, followed by reporters, in Holland, Ohio, on Thursday.
He posted his own assessment of the debate on YouTube, the video Web site that now features “Joe the Plumber Blues” and any number of Joe the Plumber interviews. He inspired a new line of “Joe The Plumber for President” T-shirts.
Sen. McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, invoked his name from Maine to Pennsylvania Thursday, as some in the crowds shouted, “Joe, Joe, Joe.” The McCain campaign launched a new Web ad featuring Mr. Wurzelbacher.
In Toledo on Sunday, the plumber told Sen. Obama he was hoping to buy the plumbing company he works for, a firm he told Mr. Obama makes between $250,000 and $280,000 a year.
“Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?” he asked.
Joe Wurzelbacher, now known as “Joe the Plumber,” speaks with Fox’s Neil Cavuto about his reaction to the Oct. 15 presidential debate between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama. Video courtesy of the Fox Business Network. (Oct. 16)
The discussion went national when Sen. McCain brought “Joe the Plumber” up repeatedly during the debate Wednesday at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. To the Republican nominee, struggling to regain his footing amid the economic crisis, Mr. Wurzelbacher appeared to take on totemic powers, a real-world victim of the tax policies his opponent was espousing.
Joe could theoretically suffer a tax increase under Sen. Obama’s tax plan if he succeeds in buying that plumbing company.
The company, A.W. Newell Inc., with two employees, Al Newell and Mr. Wurzelbacher, reported sales this year of $100,000. On sales of that volume, a firm that size could expect to earn about a 6% profit, or $6,000, after salaries and costs are taken out, according to Lee Smither, managing director of FMI Corp., a Raleigh, N.C., management-consulting firm for construction contractors.
The average income of plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters in 2006 was $48,002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With income and profits, Mr. Wurzelbacher would be nowhere close to the threshold of $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples for Sen. Obama’s proposed tax increase. To reach that level, Mr. Smither said, a mom-and-pop plumbing company like Newell would have to clear $5 million in annual sales.
But if Mr. Wurzelbacher reaped taxable income from his business of $280,000 a year, he’d pay about $900 more a year in taxes under Sen. Obama’s plan, which would raise the tax rate on the income between $250,000 and $280,000 to 36% from 33%.
Sen. Obama did not simply try to refute the assertions — first by Mr. Wurzelbacher, then by Sen. McCain — that Joe the Plumber’s taxes would go up under his plan. Instead, he stoked Republican ire by telling Mr. Wurzelbacher, “When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
On Thursday, Obama campaign aides fought back, saying that if Mr. Wurzelbacher earns the wages of a typical Ohio plumber, $40,600, and holds a $90,000 mortgage, he would see a tax cut under Sen. Obama’s plan of more than $1,000, compared with no tax reduction under Sen. McCain’s. If he succeeds in buying the plumbing business where he works, he could see even more tax benefits, including Sen. Obama’s proposed elimination of capital-gains taxes for small-business investment, a 50% tax credit to purchase health insurance for employees and a $3,000 tax credit for every new hire over the next two years.
Meanwhile, reporters and liberal bloggers dug up a $1,182.98 tax lien the state of Ohio has taken out against Mr. Wurzelbacher, and discovered he’s been plumbing without a license, something he does not deny. Reporters also discovered that Mr. Wurzelbacher’s name is apparently misspelled on the Lucas County Board of Elections database, potentially disqualifying his vote. The Ohio Democratic Party is using that last fact to challenge a Republican lawsuit that seeks to disqualify some new registered voters over such record-keeping discrepancies.
Late Thursday, Mr. Wurzelbacher answered the door and told a reporter he wasn’t doing any more interviews. Asked about his claim that the business he wants to buy makes $250,000 a year, when Ohio business records say it’s less, he said, “I don’t discuss that with my partner.”
—Laura Meckler and Elizabeth Holmes contributed to this article.
Write to Jonathan Weisman at [email protected] and Ilan Brat at [email protected]