Saturday, October 18, 2008

Joe Lives in Flyover Country

I live in flyover country, just across the Maumee River from Toledo, Ohio. A really nice guy, named Joe Wuzelbacher lives on the other side of the expressway in Holland, Ohio. Senator Barack Obama just happened to be in his neighborhood recently, when Joe was out tossing a football with his son. The candidate solicited a question from Joe and asked if he had any concerns. Joe replied that he was a plumber with thoughts of buying the small business from his employer in the future and what would happen to him, if his good luck should allow him to buy the business, hire a few more employees and start making more money. Would the government (under the Obama regime) take his profits away from him? Obama replied that certainly Joe must want people under him to have the same privileges by "spreading the wealth around". Now, if you have worked sixty hours this week, invested in four plumbing trucks for your plumbers to drive, hired a bookkeeper to keep Uncle Sam from sending you to the slammer for non payment of income taxes, hired an office girl to tend the phones when customers call for plumbing services and provided the office supplies and furniture..... would you think it is fair to take ....say $1000.00 and split it with the family down the street who has a plasma TV, I-Pod, Wii, kids with Nikes, a husband who smokes and drinks, but doesn't work? That's spreading the wealth around... it's also called Socialism. I've watched the news all week as different networks have hounded this poor man, his family and his neighbors. He has been vetted about his private life, but is just a private citizen and is not running for any public office. There have been about one hundred different reporters and television trucks in his neighborhood. It was said that he has no plumber's license.... in Ohio, you can be a journeyman plumber, but the license belongs to the owner of the business. Joe doesn't own the business....he is just a hard working plumber, who is trying to decide if he would ever want to work extra hard to own a business, since Obama would take his profits away and give them to non-producing slugs. They are saying that Joe owes back taxes. Why would any reputable reporter snoop into a private citizen's records? All the grief they have given to "Joe the Plumber" is an effort to diminish the importance of the question he asked Senator Obama. Why would he want to work harder, invest his life in a small business, if after all the effort.....Big Brother would come along and redistribute his hard earned money around like candy on Halloween?

6 comments:

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

honey the only reason i know is they are evil buggers. i hope something really really good happens to joe over all this. and i hope people open their eyes to what is about to happen. remember robin hood? well, he's about to move into the white house. help us all...

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxo

Constance said...

I hate Obama and his policies smack of socialism if not outright of communism - "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

His blindness with his attitude will bankrupt the 10% of the economy currently taking care of the other 90%. What an idiot, and all for the sake of popularity and votes. He is dangerous, dangerous, dangerous.

Big Dave T said...

My wife thought Joe handled all the media attention quite well. You're right though that some took their shots. My favorite was the pundit who claimed Joe was a "Republican plant."

Granny Annie said...

I turned to my husband during the debate and said, "This poor Joe guy is doomed. By morning the media will have totally dissected his entire life."

No wonder more people don't speak up. Who needs such close inspection for simply speaking their mind. It makes me ill.

Cathy said...

I feel so bad for this man. I hate politics more and more all the time. This election is going to be a farce no matter who wins. In all my voting years this is the worst I have ever seen. To be honest I can't stand Obama nor can I stand McCain. I have tried to like McCain just so I can vote against Obama, which I will do, but I don't feel good about this. I think Palin is an Idiot and thoughts of her possibly being President seem like a joke. I think we are doomed. Literally!

I'm so sorry I haven't been here for awhile but with Dave laid up and other things going on it has been hard. Not to mention I was using dial up for the past two years but I have my high speed back!

B.S. said...

Wow, Kacey, YOU live near JOE the PLUMBER!!?? WOW!

Seriously, the way he's been treated and investigated is appalling. And I can't imagine how things are going to play out under the Obama administration.

However, now that Joe is world-famous, he's poised to start one heck of a successful company, as long as he calls it "Joe the Plumber." If I were in his shoes I'd just do it, and not worry about who might take what. And here's why: I once bought Amazon stock, and its price doubled a week later. I was going to sell, but my friends said, "NO- you can't sell now because of the tax consequences!!" I foolishly listened, and ended up selling the stock 2 years later for a 50% loss, all because I worried about tax consequences!

Hugs,
Betty

Hugs,
Betty