Some Context on Joe the Plumber

It was obvious and it was inevitable, but the MSM has set its sight on Joe the Plumber. Politico reported yesterday that he is behind on his taxes. Reports surfaced that he doesn't actually have a license, and one report has Joe the Plumber being a relative, by marriage, of the late con man Charles Keating.

As soon as the MSM began to vet the plumber, members of the conservative media began rushing to his defense. Here is Lori Byrd defending Joe the Plumber. Michelle Malkin's newest column is on the same subject. Ultimately, both sides see fear and opportunity. The left fears that Joe the Plumber can become a symbol of what Dick Morris described as cultural populism. Joe the Plumber can become the symbol of Obama's idea that government is best capable to decide how money should be split up. The right is fearful that Joe the Plumber will be proven to be a fraud, and the line of attack will become worthless.

Ultimately, I see an entirely different lesson. What the whole Joe the Plumber episode proves is that the McCain campaign has handled Obama's tax policies in an entirely incompetent manner. What Joe the Plumber revealed is that the idea that Obama is peddling that his tax increases will only go to those that can afford it is nonsense. There are millions of Joe the Plumbers out there and at anytime the McCain campaign could have visited one of them and made the exact same point Joe the Plumber made himself. Heck, McCain doesn't need Joe the Plumber to illustrate this point. I have a friend who is a CPA and he makes just over a hundred grand. He is also attempting to buy one of his client's manufacturing business. This business is wildly successful. It's worth somewhere in the neighborhood of ten million, and if my friend does buy it, he will certainly wind up making over $250,000. My friend could have asked the exact same question and he would have gotten the same response from Obama. Furthermore, my friend would have told the Senator that every extra penny that would go to increasing his own taxes would come out of investing into the business.

Can you imagine how much political capital John McCain would have gained had he visited a successful restaurant that nets the owner more than a quarter million? The owner would have explained that they put nearly every available resource back into their business. As such, every single extra Dollar that would go to paying a tax hike would be one less Dollar that would have gone back into the business. That would mean less money to pay employees, for new food to put on the menu, and it would mean that plans for expansion would have to be halted. All that Joe the Plumber did was put a face on the corrossive effect of a tax increase on small businesses, but Joe the Plumber is not the only one that would face its effects.

The McCain campaign has been arguing against the Obama tax increase in theory. As such, they have allowed Barack Obama to make Warren Buffett, CEO's, and himself the face of the tax increase. Senator Obama has drilled into everyone's head that his tax increases would go to people like CEO's, Warren Buffett, and Senator Obama. In other words, it would go to people that can afford it. All John McCain had to do was give an alternative face for the tax increases. What Joe the Plumber did was reveal that Obama's tax increases won't simply go to those that can afford them, but they will go to those that are trying to better their lives.

What Joe the Plumber has done is put a sympathetic face on someone that would receive a tax increase. It was a political gift to the McCain campaign of the highest order, but Joe the Plumber is not the only sympathetic face that would receive a tax increase under Obama's plan. What Joe the Plumber did is something the McCain campaign should have been doing for months. The McCain campaign should have been travelling all around the country visiting successful small businesses and asking all of them what a massive tax increase would do to their business. Had they done that, what Joe the Plumber did in exposing Obama's tax plan wouldn't have been necessary because the McCain campaign would have done it themselves long ago.