Joe the Plumber

[tongodeon]

John McCain's "Joe the Plumber" point confused me last night and 24 hours later I still don't see the issue.

I would like to mention that a couple days ago Senator Obama was out in Ohio and he had an encounter with a guy who's a plumber, his name is Joe Wurzelbacher

Comments

[bsdcat]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/15/smallbusiness/small_biz_taxes_factcheck.smb/index.htm?cnn=yes

"I want to set the record straight: Currently I would not fall into Barack Obama's $250,000-plus," he said.

[ikkyu2]

Your valuation fails to include a signficant asset: Joe himself. If he is buying a business in which he's already doing most of the work, he doesn't have to pay for that part of it, or any revenue it might generate.

doubt he could buy out a business...

[killingmoon]

According to Reuters, "Joe the Plumber" is practicing plumbing without a license: http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN1639355520081016

Re: doubt he could buy out a business...

[pjammer]

Ah, or as our illegal-immigration-loving leftist friends would say, he's an "undocumented plumber." :)

[cdk]

When Joe, a 1040 taxpayer, takes out a loan to purchase a stake in an established business, is that a deductible expense?

[mmcirvin]

The emotional kick of these sorts of arguments often comes from wrongly assuming that tax brackets are not marginal, that is, that once you get into the higher bracket you're taxed at the higher rate on all your income, not just on your income over the threshold.

As to whether that's what Joe or McCain was doing here, it's hard to tell.