Guest Post: To Joe the Plumber from Scott the Preacher
Scott Lohse, pastor of St. Martin’s United Church of Christ in Dittmer, Mo., won our “Five Minutes with a Candidate” contest and will guest blog here through the election.
I guess you are experiencing a wildfire of instant and fleeting fame after being referred to so much in Wednesday night’s presidential campaign debate! In fact you may or may not realize this, but I just looked at the web site CafePress.com and noticed they are even selling Joe the Plumber T-shirts already.
The shirt I liked the most says, “Support Joe the Plumber because our economy is in the toilet.” A close second, however, is the shirt that says “No more drips in the White House.” I suppose you have already heard all of the plumber humor that you can bear.
You were selected as a prototypical person who might be able to succeed in your own small business if the U.S. tax code were to provide the proper climate for you. You have not made an endorsement yet in the current campaign, but you have made it pretty clear that if you ever were to earn a quarter-million dollars a year, you would not want for it to place you into a higher tax bracket.
Joe, I have to tell you that I feel your pain. I actually know a number of small business owners and they feel that a good deal of hard earned money constantly goes for operating expenses. As difficult as it can sometimes be to earn a living in this climate, I have to say that I have always subscribed to the notion that the customer is No. 1.
By that, I mean the best thing for the small business owner would be a healthy economy. That would help the greatest number of people fare well, so they have the resources they need. And they can feel like they can afford the services and goods you have to offer them.
Here is the thing Joe: I am looking for something new in the tax structure of our great nation that will stop awarding the best breaks to just a few people at the top and building on the backs of the majority.
I hope you do get your license to become a plumber Joe, and that you do make six figures.
I wish you well, but I believe that the current mess that our economy is in is due to people who already have more than they need always seeking to get more. Meanwhile, others, who cannot even afford health care and do not have any one to speak up for them, truly suffer.
Our system is broken, Joe, because the numbers of the poor and those on food stamps are growing while those who are wealthy continue to get more exclusive. Take heart, Joe, this economy is a drain on all of us.
So, here’s the question: Do you think that Americans have it within ourselves to look at the current state of affairs and ask, “What is best for everyone?” and not just, “What is best for me?”
Guest blogger Scott Lohse is the winner of our "Five Minutes with a candidate" contest and will post guest blogs through the election.
He is the pastor of St. Martin's United Church of Christ in Dittmer, Mo. He has also served United Methodist Churches in Eastern Missouri towns over the past 30 years including Kennett, Bonne Terre, Jackson, Creve Coeur and Manchester. Scott has also worked as a hospice chaplain and a radio broadcaster. He is also an amateur magician.
Scott has been married for 30 years to his wife Lin. They have three children. He is an avid reader, a news junkie, and he spends more time online than he cares to admit. 
Let’s everyone calm down and try and think for a second. It is true that under Obama’s tax plan “Joe the Plummer” would have to pay more taxes, approximately $773, you’re telling me that someone with a net income of $250,000 plus can not pay less than .5% more in taxes so that everyone making less than $250k can have a tax cut? Who really needs the extra income?
The trickle up poverty plan of Obama will not work just as the trickle down policies of the past have been a total disaster. Why people are against a flat tax rate is beyond me. Maybe it is time to try it, nothing else seems to work.
First Tom -
I am a business owner, much like Joe the Plumber wants to be. Our income is none of your business, but I can assure you we have donated to McCain’s campaign heftily, because over the years, Carter and Clinton were the ones hitting us, “the little guys,” hard. Need any more proof? And I just can’t wait to have the first lady shoving lobster and imported caviar in her face while other people, like you, starve. I’m so sorry.
Great comment First Tom. In spite of the overwhelming attitude of most, Rev. Scott must continue to remind us of the the ideal to which we all should strive. We all know what our God expects of us yet our human nature leaves us selfish and dispassionate. Rev. Scott, you keep on reminding us. In these times we need to hear His word more than ever.
Good to see plenty of the truly greedy citizens stopping by to share their opinions. The rest of us work pretty hard for our dollars, too.
Hello Everyone:
This is Joe the Plumber. I think it’s time that you all learned my real identity:
Turns out my real name is Joe Wurzelbacher from Milford, Ohio. I’m Charles Keating’s son-in-law. You know the former senior vice president of American Continental, the parent company of the infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan? The now retired elder Wurzelbacher is also a major contributor to Republican causes giving well over $10,000 in the last few years. So I’m not what I’ve been out to be.
http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/10/15/joe-the-plumber-wurzelbacher-related-to-charles-keating-oops/
I’ve always felt that Liberals always sort of asked, “What is best for everyone?”, which would include themselves, their neighbors and strangers elsewhere who might be in need. The very foundation of Liberalism is the dignity of each and every individual. Conservatives, on the other hand, seem generally to have a paranoid “What’s in it for me?” attitude. They have their bank account and way of life and don’t want anyone messing with the status quo in any way that would affect their superior status. No taxes on income (or capital gains, or estates), no welfare or other assistance to the poor, no public money spent on immigrants. Even though many conservatives inherited family money to get their financially-oriented adults lives under way, they want everyone else to have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The coming election will tell us if most Americans have in their souls “What is best for everyone.
I’ve always felt that liberals are constantly shouting
“WHAT’S BEST FOR NON-WHITES (excluding Native Americans), ILLEGALS, CRIMINALS, FEMINISTS, and HOMOSEXUALS !?!”
and that’s all they ever do.
One beauty of the market system is that individual self-interest (which is not greed but that is the subject of another commentary) is satisfied only by pleasing other people, and the structure of the market leads individual interest “as if by an invisible hand” to support the public interest. No such mechanism exists in the institutions of government
http://www.businessandmedia.org/commentary/2008/20081008080731.aspx
Brian,
Assuming Joe the Plumber is what he says, the $250k her refers to is not “net income”. In small businesses, generally organized as Sub Chapter S corps, the income flows through to the owner and is taxed at his tax rate. Out of his “revenues” of $250k, he has to pay all the expenses of the business: trucks, gas, tools and the salaries and benefits of the employees. He’d be luck to “net” $60k. He’s really rich, right? I’ve lived through the last big tax increase in the late eighties and saw first hand what will happen. Business owners will reduce the easiest thing they can, payroll. Every doctors’ office will layoff a receptionist or clerk because the doctor isn’t going to make any less. You are just going to wait longer for your visit. Unemployment will go up. Interest rates will go up. Yes, it will be a wonderful time for everyone.