Joe The Plumber and Obama

[Don Buckbee]

Barack Obama discovers a leak
under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come and fix
it.


Joe drives to Obama's house,
which is located in a very nice neighborhood and where it's clear
that all the residents make more than $250,000 per
year.


Joe arrives and takes his tools
into the house. Joe is led to the room that contains the leaky
pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama, who
is standing near the door, that it's an easy repair that will take
less than 10 minutes.


Obama asks Joe how much it will
cost. Joe immediately says, '$9,500.'


'$9,500?' Obama asks, stunned.
'But you said it's an easy repair!'


'Yes, but what I do is charge a
lot more to my clients who make more than $250,000 per year so I
can fix the plumbing of everybody who makes less than that for
free,' explains Joe. 'It's always been my philosophy. As a matter
of fact, I lobbied government to pass this philosophy as law, and
it did pass earlier this year, so now all plumbers have to do
business this way. It's known as 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act of
2008.' Surprised you haven't heard of it,
senator.'


In spite of that, Obama tells
Joe there's no way he's paying that much for a small plumbing
repair, so Joe leaves..


Obama spends the next hour
flipping through the phone book looking for another plumber, but
he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have gone out
of business. Not wanting to pay Joe's price, Obama does nothing.
The leak under Obama's sink goes unrepaired for the next several
days.


A week later the leak is so bad
that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. The bucket
fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there's a
risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with
him to return.


Joe goes back to Obama's house,
looks at the leaky pipe, and says 'Let's see – this will cost you
about $21,000..'


'A few days ago you told me it
would cost $9,500!' Obama quickly fires
back.


Joe explains the reason for the
dramatic increase. 'Well, because of the 'Joe's Fair Plumbing
Act,' a lot of rich people are learning how to fix their own
plumbing, so there are fewer of you paying for all the free
plumbing I'm doing for the people who make less than $250,000. As
a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers
rises every day.


'Not only that, but for some
reason the demand for plumbing work from the group of people who
get it for free has skyrocketed, and there's a long waiting list
of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow
plumbers out of business, and they're not being replaced – nobody
is going into the plumbing business because they know they won't
make any money. I'm hurting now too – all thanks to greedy rich
people like you who won't pay their fair
share.'


Obama tries to straighten out
the plumber: 'Of course you're hurting, Joe! Don't you get it? If
all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you
refuse to charge the poorer people for your services, you'll be
broke, and then what will you do?'


Joe immediately replies, 'Run
for President, apparently.'

[Shellback]

Hummm maybe I can learn somthing from this.
Tim

[ponycar17]

That's a pretty fair satire of what will happen if taxes on the rich, entrepreneurs and investors are raised, while funneling free money to those who do not contribute to business creation...

I believe it's poetic justice that McCain gets Joe, the Plumber and Obama is stuck with Joe, the Dumber...

[artabr]

Originally Posted by ponycar17

That's a pretty fair satire of what will happen if taxes on the rich, entrepreneurs and investors are raised, while funneling free money to those who do not contribute to business creation...

I believe it's poetic justice that McCain gets Joe, the Plumber and Obama is stuck with Joe, the Dumber...

I believe you've nailed it on both accounts Pony.

Thanks for this Don. I may need to use this if you don't mind.


Art

[Bruce FLinch]

Excellant!