Yeetle Box - Hey Joe! Where You Goin'....?

“Joe the plumber,” if that's his real name, the new face of middle-class America isn’t technically a plumber.

Joe the plumber - aka Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, 34, of suburban Toledo, Ohio — is the first to say that he’s not the story and that no one should listen to him when it comes to tax policy. Good thinking, Joe.

“I just hope I’m not making too much of a fool of myself and can get some type of message out there as far as, you know, really watch actions and learn for yourself,” Wurzelbacher said. “Don’t take other people’s opinions. No one's opinions. Not mine especially. I'm just a plumber.”



Or is he?

• Wurzelbacher, not Wurzellburger, as McCain referred to him, isn’t a plumber, because he isn’t licensed by Toledo, Lucas County or the state of Ohio. (Oops!)
  
  
• Wurzelbacher said he worked under the license held by his boss, Al Newell of Newell Plumbing and Heating Co. of Toledo. Newell is a licensed plumbing contractor in Toledo, records show. But anyone working under Newell should have a journeyman’s plumbing license or an apprenticeship license, officials said. Joe the "not a plumber" does not hold a license for either. (You mean, I'm NOT a plumber?)
  
  
• Now, The Toledo Plumbing Board of Control may consider sanctions against Wurzelbacher or Newell. (Is that like a tax?)
  
  
• "There’s a lot I’ve got to learn” about the plumbing business."

Wurzelbacher also acknowledged that he had no specific plans for buying Newell’s business, saying he and Newell had simply talked about the idea from time to time. He might have difficulty making the purchase: Court records from his divorce show that Wurzelbacher made $40,000 in 2006. (A man can dream.)

While Wurzelbacher told Obama that he would be taxed at a higher rate because the company grossed more than $250,000 a year, Ohio business records show the company’s estimated total annual revenue as only $100,000. Actual taxable income would be even less than that. (Hey! Does that mean I get a tax break? Sure does!)

Assuming Wurzelbacher’s income as owner somehow hit $280,000 — the top end of his supposition of the company’s revenue — only the extra $30,000 would be taxed at a higher rate. (Hey! You said I would get a tax break! What gives?)

Joe says Obama would be ‘hurting others like him. Analysts calculated that the extra tax would amount to $900, which would likely be more than offset by separate provisions of Obama’s plan: a 50 percent tax credit for health care and elimination of the capital gains tax for small businesses. (Oh...)

Wurzelbacher, a registered Republican, refused to say whom he would vote for, insisting that “I want the American people to vote for who they want to vote for. I just want them to be informed when they make that vote. Unlike me.”

Jimi the Guitarist speaks to Joe the Plumber

The YeetleMaster