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Meet Joe the REAL Plumber |
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Sen. John McCain, meet Joe the plumber. Unlike Samuel Wurzelbacher, Joe’s given name is…Joe.
And, unlike Wurzelbacher, he’s a licensed plumber.
Joe Moenck, a plumber in Zumbrota, Minn., is a member of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) Local 6—which, like all building and construction trades unions, has high professional standards for its members—such as making sure they hold a license to practice their craft.
Moenck was dismayed to see McCain repeatedly trot out “Joe the Plumber” during this week’s presidential debate with Sen. Barack Obama. Says Moenck:
I felt that when John McCain was talking about Joe the Plumber, I didn’t feel that that was sincere. He didn’t mention the middle class in the last two debates at all. It upset me that he brought this up strictly because he had to, because his ratings are low among the middle class. I don’t think he believes what he said, but he knows his support is low there and said that strictly for the ratings, as a campaign strategy.
When “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher met Obama in Toledo on Sunday, Wurzelbacher expressed concern about being taxed on earnings of $280,000 per year should he ever start a small plumbing business.
But, as Moenck can tell you, hard workers like him in the building trades aren’t paid anywhere near $250,000 a year. For Moenck—and even for Wurzelbacher, who right now makes far less than his dream salary—Obama’s tax plan would mean a decrease in taxes by more than $1,200 a year—more than under McCain’s tax plan. And should Wurzelbacher ever pull in $250,000, he’d only pay a few hundred dollars more in taxes under Obama’s plan. Not a deal-breaker for a guy thinking of starting a small business.
Wurzelbacher also has a bit of an agenda. He’s a member of the Associated Builders & Contractors, a nonunion trade group that has endorsed McCain.
So, in addition to Moenck, we’d like to introduce McCain to a few other real Joe the plumbers.
There’s Joe Gutzwiller, a licensed plumber in Indianapolis and member of UA Local 440. Gutzwiller shares a lot in common with Moenck, including seeing through McCain’s pretensions of support for America’s middle class.
I heard the one about health care, where McCain wants to tax our benefits, and I just think he’s looking out for bigger businesses and corporations leaving middle class people out of the whole picture.
I think Obama is actually trying to help out middle class people who are feeling the effect of our economy. From what I’ve seen in the debates, he’s trying to prevent future problems and give the middle class a tax break to help stimulate the economy.
And then there’s Joe Tatum in Virginia, who’s been a licensed plumber for 35 years after apprenticing with UA Local 10.
McCain thinks we make over $200,000. I don’t make anywhere close to that. If I did, I could retire now instead of waiting ’til I’m 62.
Over in Colorado, Joe Martinez, a plumber and member of UA Local 3, has this to say:
John McCain doesn’t understand working families and I don’t understand how any plumber can vote for John McCain. He’s just not in touch with the working man at all.
And there’s Joe Vicena, a member of UA Local 75 in Milwaukee, who sees McCain as continuing the same disastrous economic policies as George W. Bush.
Our jobs are being sent overseas, people are losing their pensions and their 401(k)s, and the stock market is tanking. We need change in a positive manner. McCain is not the person to do it. He is absolutely not the person. Me and my family can’t take four more minutes, much less four more years, of the missteps and mispolicies we’ve had the past eight.
Moenck, Gutzwiller, Tatum, Martinez and Vicena agree with their union that Obama is the best choice for America’s plumbers—and all middle-class workers—because, as under Bush, McCain’s economic policy would benefit the wealthiest and flush the rest of us down the tank. As Moenck puts it:
If the middle class doesn’t have money to call Joe the Plumber, Joe the Plumber’s not gonna be in business very long.
(This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog.)
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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
7 Comments
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Look AT THE ISSUES and not the physical charactistics of the candidates! WAKE UP! This is why America still has an Electoral College….most Americans are too lazy to do the research on the candidate themselves. For this reason, you’re simply listening to the twisted facts you’re hearing from the media or an organization who is telling you who you should vote for. The election should NOT be a race, gender or popularity contest. We don’t need a President who can be manipulated, we need one who can take a strong stand on the hard, unpopular issues. For this reason, I will exercise my Freedom Of Speech and say that I hope my dues are not going to support Obama……..If I thought they were, I would withdraw from the union tomorrow. No individual or organization tells ME who I should vote for! I can think and reason for myself.
PinkChevy - would like to hear your views on this - i am a young voter.. can you e-mail me, xbabiekrisx@aol.com..
The first thing I would have to say , just by your comments, is that you really are not probably a union member. Second, if you would simply read the voting record on union labor and working family issues, and copy the bill numbers, then go to the library of the Senate and Congress, check the bill yourself online, and see what and how they voted for. I’ve done my homework, and its nice hearing a Presidential Candidate mention the hard work union labor has done over the years protecting working Americans, almost everyday in his speeches like Senator Obama does. Please stop watching FOX, aka, Karl Roves special interest, and research the facts.
If McCain does not know how many houses he has why should he know what a plumber is anyway.
PinkChevy1, I think we all need to reason things out, but until this organization educated our union members, a lot of them thought John McCain was a nice guy that would take care of them. I have two young sons, one who is working and trying to get the money together to finish his college education. I would like to see them have a better life than I have. That’s what most parents want. I guess I would ask you, if you did not have your union job, that undoubtedly gives you the benefits you deserve, what would happen to you and your family? I hope that every cent of my union dues is going to educate our rank and file union members on the facts; because the fact is, John McCain is bad for workers; and I have investigated this, looked at voting records, listened to all the debates. I have reasoned this out for myself. Barack Obama has a 98% overall worker voting record in the U.S. Senate.
It’s obvious “Joe the Plumber” was a PLANT by the Republican sleaze machine. He’s NOT a plumber; he OWES about $11K in back taxes, that he chooses not to pay; he questioned Obama to make it look like he was genuinely concerned about paying more in taxes. He’s not. He doesn’t pay his taxes, and he will not pay increased taxes if he earns anything less than $250K. (If I earned $250K a year, I certainly would not have a problem paying a “little more” in taxes. That’s all that is proposed anyway. Would you? If you were fortunate enough to earn that much a year?) I have to wonder just what kind of job he really does have.
This is a sad story, because it shows the extreme lengths the Republicans will go to to discredit the opposition; it doesn’t matter if anything they say or do is true; what matters is that they come off “holier than thou”. I am sick to death of the lies and fifth from the McCain-Palin campaign.
I don’t know where Pink Chevy 1 is getting his information. What i see in all the articles on this site is about jobs wages healthcare taxes etc, and where Senator McCain and Obama stand on these issues. I haven’t seen where race gender or popularity has anything to do with the election. I think Pink Chevy 1 has this site confused with the Fox News Channel . They are the ones talking about race religeon who your friends are etc.
For my money Senator Obama more closely shares my feelings about this country and what it should be doing.
It doesn’t sound like Pink Chevy 1 appreciates what the union does for him.. Maybe he should work for one of those ABC contractors and find out what thats like.
I know I worked for an ABC contractorand our wages were much lower, medical ins. was next to nothing. They could do just about anything they wanted. I left there and worked for a co. represented by the USWA.. There was no comparison. I had great medical benefits for myself and family a very good living and a very good retirement program which I am enjoying now. But my old friends at the ABC contractor are struggling. They have no retirement health benefits, and someone mishandled their retirement fund, and they get next to nothing from their retirement
I know what is good for me. I look at all the facts and I think Obama is the right choice for all working people