Joe the Plumber

It was pretty funny today,my wife was complaining about too many " joe the plumber" interviews and joe the plumber story's.Honestly I can't get enough of it,mostly because it's proof positive of how average ambitious working class Americans,like myself,think.

On an Obama neighbor hood walk through joe the plumber asked “I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes $250,000 to $280,000 a year. Your new tax plan is going to tax me more isn’t it?”Seems like a perfectly legitimate question to me.In fact the question isn't what the big buzz is about, it was the answer from Obama that's been heard around the world.The part about "spreading the wealth"is the root of the political whirlwind.

I guess if your a person that is all about doing the minimum , doing just enough to get bye or doing nothing but leach from society because it's easier then working,then this probably sounds like a great deal for you.For the majority of Americans that work their 40+ hours per week,spend wisely,put a few bucks away for a rainy day or the kids college fund this idea of taking some of our hard earned to share with those who don't deserve it is WRONG to say the least.

For those people who would say something like"your mean,how can you be against helping people in need?"I'm all for helping people in need,I do some volunteer stuff and we give money to our church and some charity's of our choice.The key is "of our choice".I have no desire to donate my kids college money or our retirement account to support someone that is too lazy or unmotivated to get a job.

It's the people that are leaching the system that are"mean"they are stealing from,not only us tax payers but worse they are stealing from the people that it is intended for.

This "joe the plumber" issue reminded me of something that happened about 5-6 years ago as my small business was booming.Some attitudes were starting to surface from a couple of my guys so one day after work I decided to crack open some beers and have a talk to see what was up.It turns out that they felt I wasn't spreading around my success enough with a couple of them.They had seen in a 3 year period my wife and I purchase a 4 wheeler and a boat, so to them it looked like we had cash just flying out our butts.Even though both were new, they were 2 year hold overs and I spent several Saturdays bargaining with the salespeople.

The thing that the guys didn't realize was that those toys were the rewards of my wife and I working together for 15 years which included 10 years of me working 70+ hours per week,going months at a time with out a single day off never mind a full weekend.I let them know that if worked a little more and made an extra $120 a month they could also share a new boat with the bank.

So what "joe" was saying is spot on,as a business owner you have financial risk,you put in lots of extra time and sacrifice, if you do a good enough job maybe just maybe someday your business could bring in as much a $250,000 a year.Under Obama's plan you not only get taxed more on your 250,000th dollar of the year but every dollar of the year.Congratulations!!!

How about lowering the tax rate as you make more then more people will go for it.Simple math if someone makes 25k a year at 10% that would be $2,500 taxes from that person,at 50k a year make it 8% that's $4,000 from the same person.Call it my volumn discount plan.Just kidding,that would never work its too simple and kinda makes sense.

Joel Stetkis