It turns out that “Joe the Plumber” has more tax issues than were spotlighted during the final presidential debate. He doesn’t just not like taxes, he apparently doesn’t like to pay them. He owes the State of Ohio nearly $1200 in back taxes; Ohio has filed a lien against him to recover amounts due.
“Joe the Plumber” is really named Samuel J. Wurzelbacher and before moving to Ohio, he lived in John McCain’s home state of Arizona. He became a household name when he told Senator Obama during the debates that he was worried about Obama’s tax proposal. McCain used the opportunity to criticize Obama’s tax plan, saying, “what you want to do to ‘Joe the plumber’ and millions more like him is have their taxes increased and not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business.”
Wurzelbacher has said in an interview on “Good Morning America” that high earners shouldn’t be “penalized for being successful.” Apparently, he believes that includes paying his taxes. Under Obama’s tax proposal, Wurzelbacher’s tax bill would be an additional $900 if he netted, not grossed, $280,000 of income.
Interestingly, though Wurzelbacher talked about wanting to buy a plumbing business, he doesn’t have a plumber’s license. According to the State of Ohio, where the business is located, he is not registered as a plumber.
[Author's note: While I do enjoy spirited debate, I will not tolerate those commenters that spam by posting numerous versions of the same comments under different names. That's not commenting, it's spamming and it's rude. I realize that "Joe the Plumber" is a political topic and you want to get your point across. But posting the same comment under different names ten times in a row, as has happened on this post, doesn't add anything to the same conversation. Comments are in moderation: if you post spam, it will be marked as such and your comment will not appear. For more about my comment policy, click here.]
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