Thursday, October 16, 2008

"Joe" the "Plumber"

Sorry, I just couldn't resist this. So ironic. Turns out "Joe the Plumber":

1) Isn't named Joe. His name is Samuel.

So.... "Sam the Plumber"? Well, no, because he:

2) Isn't a plumber. He's not even a journeyman or apprentice plumber, and therefore may have been working illegally in Toledo. (Though there are no complaints against him, so no proof there.)

But those are details, right? The point is that this upstanding, middle class American doesn't want to pay more taxes. Is that so wrong? Well no, but actually not paying them kinda is. Turns out Joe/Sam:

3) Has a lien on his house for the $1,182.98 he owes in back taxes to the State of Ohio. Oops.

Poor guy. This may turn out to be 15 minutes of fame he could have done without!

Source: This article from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

3 comments:

Imperfect Serenity said...

To me the more important point is that "Joe" would actually do better under Obama's tax plan, but has been mislead to think otherwise. In fact, Sarah Palin has been saying at rallies, "Joe the plumber thinks Barack Obama is a socialist," and I suppose we will be accused of being elitist if we point out that Joe is wrong. I just heard one guest on NPR say, "Anyone who says Obama is a socialist is either deliberately trying to scare people or has no sense of historical context." I wonder which one is true of Palin.

suzannah | the smitten word said...

outrageous. i hope this story gets picked up more.

naturalmom said...

What I said about feeling kinda sorry for the guy? Scratch that. He's milking this for all it's worth. Sheesh.

Eileen, I think the answer to your question may very well be "both"!

Stephanie