Joe the Plumber under attack - McCain to the rescue

"It's not clear to me how it's deceptive to call yourself a plumber when you do plumbing work for a licensed plumbing company, even if you are not the owner of said company," he writes.  "Maybe that's not good enough for the plumber's union to consider you a plumber, but for 95 percent of people, that job description sounds like 'plumber.'"

Joe-and-Obama

What about the tax argument and the claim that Obama's tax plan would hit Plumber harder if enacted?  That stands up, according to the Tax Foundation.

If his adjusted gross income was $280,000, he would pay $773 more in taxes under an Obama plan.

Joe-makin'-Dough

But is the $280,000 attainable?  Not according to the plumbers union.

The Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters and Service Mechanics disputes it.  A spokesman for the group, according to Reuters, says the profession just doesn't pay that much.

"If there's a plumber or pipefitter making more than $250,000, we want to know where he's working," laughed Tony Herrera.  "We don't make that kind of money."

Joe-no-Impacted

Further, according to Bloomberg, the firm that Wurzelbacher wants to buy doesn't bring in enough for him to be affected.

The company McCain said the plumber wants to buy has annual sales of $510,000, according to an analysis by Dun & Bradstreet," Bloomberg reports.  "That makes it unlikely that Wurzelbacher's purchase would give him a taxable income of more than $200,000 – leaving him unaffected by Obama's proposal to roll back tax breaks for those earning more than $250,000, said Steven Bankler, a certified public accountant in San Antonio, who counts plumbers and other trade professionals as his clients.

Joe-never-make-Dough

But we're totally missing the point says conservative blogger Michelle Malkin:

"Under an Obama-Biden administration, they’ll make sure no Joe The Plumbers ever earn such a salary. “It’s good for everybody,” don’t you know?" Malkin writes.

Joe-and-Palin

Plumber or no plumber, McCain running mate Sarah Palin considers him a plumber and brought him up today to many cheers while in Ohio.

"It’s a choice between a candidate who will raise your taxes, and that threatens our future, and a leader going to Washington to work for the people like Joe the Plumber, and millions like Joe the Plumber who are struggling to sustain a small business," Palin said. "We want to cut taxes and our opponent wants to raise them."

Joe-FOX-Plumber

So what's up next for Joe the kinda-sorta-quasi-Plumber?

He's appearing on former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's talk show on Saturday night.  According to FOX, "Wurzelbacher will be giving his first in-studio interview since he burst on the national political landscape after questioning Barack Obama's tax policies during a rally in Ohio, where Wurzelbacher works for a plumbing company."

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