Joe the Plumber

Finally an everyday American who epitomizes blue collar America has brought Obama's secret welfare program to the forefront. I can just hear the Main Street media whispering to each other, "Oh no!". He asked, for those of you who are in outer space, why he should be taxed so much if he buys a plumbing business for $250,000? Obama's answer was that he needs to spread the wealth around. It comes down to that. Plain and simple.

For those of you who want to evaluate the situation, consider this. I do construction now and then. It is a suplimentary source of income. Last year I signed a deal to build a familyroom addition to a house, an attached 3 car garage, a new large recycled plastic deck, and new windows in the house. The contract was for $260,000. The job took 3 months. I hired the framing carpenters, the plumbers, the concrete subcontractor, the painters, the electrician and the finish men. I did a lot of the work, but as a "paper contractor" I have no employees of my own. My profit was a small fraction of the contract because I had to pay all those people. Under Obama's "If you make over $250,000 per year", I get whacked.

If you say, well he probably meant those who net over $250,000 per year, Obama never said that and he has had the chance for days now to do that. Besides, most small corporations are managed so that the owner takes a salary out, and it is never over $250,000 per year.

So how does Obama hope to do his plan? He is proposing to hit those who gross that much. The ramifications of this are obvious. Nobody will be doing these jobs anymore. If they do more then one job a year, they will be setting up new corporations for each job, LLCs. On those jobs that are like the one I had last year, There will be a lot of $249,000 contracts with work change orders or direct payments to plumbers and electricians by the homeowners. So it will work like this: Contract $250,000, but the homeowner has to pay the plumbers and lumber company and the electricians separately out of that amount, thereby resulting in less then half of the contract being deposited into the corporate account.

The sad fact is that Obama is proposing to do this. He is disguising this by saying it in such a way that you would think he is referring to only the rich businesses. He isn't. His plan will result in obvious skirting of the rules and generating much less then he thinks. Not to mention the fact that when the economy is in the tank, being cute and trying to stick it to blue collar America will be a coffin nail.