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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

The Skinny on Joe The Plumber

Senator McCain spent a lot of time in yesterday's debate talking about Joe the Plumber when it came to his economic plan. It took the online community less than a day to figure out the Joe the Plumber's not a plumber — among many other things.

Dirty D at Overdetermined, The Punisher at The Obfuscation Report, and BlueGA and Ethios4Obama at DKos did some investigative reporting yesterday, which folks like The New York Times and Politico caught on to by last night. The summary:

  • Joe's not a plumber — or at least he better not be practicing; he hasn't had his plumber's license for two years, and isn't even registered as an apprentice (as he'd have to be to work for a licensed company without having a license himself).
  • Joe's taxes will be cut in Obama's plan, not increased like McCain claims.
  • The local plumber's union, which Joe claims to be a member of but is not, endorsed Obama.
  • Joe's hatred of taxes comes from good seed: he has nearly $1,200 in unpaid taxes to the state of Ohio.
  • Really good seed: He not only voted for McCain (his first vote in the voter file) in this year's Republican primary, but seems to be the son of longtime conservative contributor Robert Wurzelbacher, senior VP of the company that owned Lincoln Savings and Loan and son-in-law of Charles Keating of the Keating Five scandal.

Now, if you want a *real* plumber and other small business owners' opinions on the presidential election, you can try here.

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