Joe The Plumber : A Hypothetical

For anyone that watched the last Presidential Debate last night, you got the feeling - within the first half-hour at least - that it would be all about Joe "The Plumber". You know, that guy that asked Obama about taxes and his business.

This guy:



Let's assume for a moment that Joe does, in fact, own a plumbing business. Let's assume that he knows how to run said business. One has to wonder if he is actually concerned with his taxes as much as he says.

Jeff In Milwaukee seems to think that Joe is missing the bigger picture:

Let's say that Joe runs a two-man shop and that he and his employee are working pretty much fulltime. Joe had a good year, with revenues of just over $500,000. Joe's screwed, right? He makes over Obama's magical $250,000 mark and he's going to have to pay taxes, right?

Wrong.

For starters, let's assume that along with payroll taxes and a few benefits like paid vacation, Joe's employee costs $75 per hour (he bills at a higher rate, of course). So that's a bit over $150,000 that Joe can write off his income.

So now we're down to $350,000.

Based on my experience in the construction industry, and assuming that Joe is doing residential and light commercial plumbing, you can count on about 20% of his total revenue being parts and consumable supplies. This is also stuff that can be written off. Twenty percent of $500,000 is $100,000.

So now we're down to $250,000.

Joe keeps a truck and a number of small tools that have to be replaced every year (you seen my wrench?). He also advertised in the local paper and pays for some schlub to do his taxes. All told, that comes to about $40,000 per year (mostly the truck and tools).

So now we're down to $210,000.

Based on the Obama Tax Calculator, and assuming that Joe is married with two kids and a mortgage, Joe would be getting an $800 tax break under the Obama plan and only $336 back under the McCain plan. And since Joe is a small business owner, he'd be getting an extra tax break if he provides insurance for his employee that he wouldn't be getting from McCain.

If you're a small business owner, you really need to be dumber than a sack of wrenches to be voting for McCain.

Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it.

Here's something else to chew on this morning. Joe's not even registered to vote.

Ben Smith at POLITICO writes:

Two readers with access to the Ohio voter file say that Joe Wurzelbacher's inluence on this cycle will be limited in one way: He doesn't appear to be registered to vote.

(And yes, the freelance opposition research on Joe began before the debate ended.

So, he's not registered to vote. There is already doubt that this "plumbing" business is registered in the state of Ohio. This man is practically a household name right now.

So far, this morning, 4 people have come up to me at work to talk about "Joe The Plumber".

It's starting to look like Joe isn't all he's cracked-up to be.