Well, the whole premise of the answer is stupid.  "He" cannot impose taxes on his own; there is a Congress. And unless one believes in a flat tax - or a flat earth - there has to be a cut-off somewhere for a marginal tax rate - be it $100 K or $250 K.  Not to mention the utterly idiotic "slippery slope" argument in this context: "well, if he increases taxes by 1%, what's to say he won't increase them by 100%?  If he pays people on welfare $500 a month, what's to say he won't pay them $5000 a month?  if he pays himself $400K, what's to say he won't pay himself $400 million." Ad nauseum.

The man is a moron; McCain the bigger fool for having brought him up.  

He didn't make it up exactly.  If you watch the video, he says he is "looking to buy a business that makes 280K a year" before delving into his question.  Now, that said, it looked and felt like an ambush that Obama gave a very well-reasoned, straightforward answer to.  Last night I found myself just wanting Obama to come out and tell voters to watch the Youtube of the conversation.  He gives a very good explanation that Joey didn't seem to want to hear, the full version of which didn't quite fit the time constraints of the debate.

All things aside the guy should probably pay his existing taxes before he spouts off about any new ones, let alone buys a business.

So now it turns out that Joe is Charles related to Charles Keating's son-in-law, a big-shot GOP guy in Ohio??? Who's not registered to vote, wasn't honest about his financial situation ...?

"Joe the Plumber" was a pretty elaborate set-up. And Obama still won the issue. Impressive.

Doesn't happen often, but for once, Chait, I think you're way off the mark.

The only reason republicans have ever gotten any traction out of the whole cut-taxes-for-the-rich shtick is that people like Joe-the-Plumber IDENTIFY with people who make much more money than they do. It's the prosperity gospel, the cult of the winner, the sense these guys have that, geez, I might be earing 43,000 a year now but I'm BOUND to make it big one day, and when I do, I don't want my taxes to be high.

In a way, I think the reason the traditional GOP message on taxes is, exceptionally, not working this year is that the financial crisis makes it much easier for Joe-the-Plumbers to start picturing themselves making much less in the future, not much more. But the identification of the middle class with people who make much more than they do...well, that's the backbone of Republicans' whole economic message, isn't it?

Ummm...let's leave Joe the Plumber alone.  I kind of like him.  On one of the shows this morning he told people not to just listen, but to do their own research.   On a moral level, I don't want to dig into this guy.  On a practical level, it makes us look bad if we try to bring down a working-class dude, whatever he said.  Republicans do that.

It's an fuzzy thiing at times, but "working class" can mean both background/style/attitudes and economic status.  There are many working class people who carry their background into positions of prosperity and a totally different economic status (e.g. owning their own plumbing firm).  To call such people working class as if they were cleaning a large office building at 2 a.m. is inaccurate, to say the least.

Rule of Thumb....

When 51% of the country is hoping to get rich, we elect Republicans.

When 51% of the country is afraid they're going to be poor, we elect Democrats.

Joe is part of the rapidly shrinking minority that still thinks they might strike it rich.  I don't think he is going to the "everyman" of this election.

(And anybody who uses the word "socialism" to describe the progressive income tax system wasn't going to vote for Obama anyway.)

There is much dishonesty on the taxes issue, since four out of five working people pay more payroll and self-employment taxes than they do income taxes.  All this talk about cutting income taxes for working people does little for them as long as they are stuck with the payroll tax burden. Yet to hear talk from Washington, this greater burden was handed down to us from Mount Sinai on stone tablets.

There is much dishonesty on the taxes issue, since four out of five working people pay more payroll and self-employment taxes than they do income taxes.  All this talk about cutting income taxes for working people does little for them as long as they are stuck with the payroll tax burden. Yet to hear talk from Washington, this greater burden was handed down to us from Mount Sinai on stone tablets.

I agree with Boneill.  This guy didn't ask McCain to bring him up in the debate, and however misguided his opinions may be, he has a right to them.  There is something rather sickening about the media feeding frenzy setting up shop on his driveway when all he did was ask a question of a candidate for President.  That being said, he had a far better interview with Katie Couric than Sarah Palin.

I find the whole thing a bit amusing, but worry that there may be some traction.

emigdio is right on when he posits that so many middle-class folks actually think they are the "rich-in-waiting" and view taxes as the primary obstacle in their inevtiable (and deserved) ascent to riches.  The one thing the Reagan years did was get the middle-class solely concentrating on the "paying taxes" part of the social contract as opposed to the "the services you get from paying your taxes" part.  

I'm assuming (it may be rash to do so) that Joe the Plumber probably got a good education at a publicly-financed K-12 school (just under 90% of Americans do) and got his specific skill training as a plumber from a publicly-funded vocational school.  I could extend the list, but I think everyone knows what the services Joe has likely consumed from the government for which he apparently gives no heed.  That's because Reagan convinced a large portion of the middle-class that most government spending goes to "welfare queens."

Thomas B. Edsall did a great job of outlining this in "The New Politics of Inequality," which I would highly recommend to everyone.

ironyard hits the other point (and hits it well) that, to me, is even more troubling.  "Working class" in a large sense has come to mean more about lifestyle than socio-economic class.  The conservative elite has done a marvelous job of whining about "class warfare" every time someone mentions that we need to make the tax structure more progressive.  I'm no conspiracy buff, but places like the Cato Institute (whose consistency I respect) spend a lot of time on libertarian social issues to mask the libertarian economic philosophy.  As a result, a lot of Joe the Plumber's buddies concentrate more on some evil scheme to erode gun rights as opposed to the economic policies that over time may well prevent their ability to buy a gun (at least the kind of gun they want).

Joe--I mean, Samuel J.--Wurzelbacher isn't all he's cracked up to be. See Chait for more. By

Lundell writes:

-- Cato Institute (whose consistency I respect) spend a lot of time on libertarian social issues to mask the libertarian economic philosophy.

Whenever, I read a blog at the Cato Institute I am reminded that a libertarian is a conservative whose heart has been ripped out by vampires. A few days ago that a Cato Institure blogger said something like poor (i.e. Democratic) voters were too stupid to be allowed a vote.

ndmackenzie, like that quote.  And I guess I have to retract my admiration for Cato's consistency, as the right to vote is pretty much the gateway to liberty.  At least that's why they give awards to Venezuelan college kids.  So much for that I guess.

I've always thought that the far, far right believes people are basically stupid and the far, far left believes people are pretty much helpless.  Glad I'm in the middle (I think neither, not both.  LOL.).

It's true that there are poor "working class" slobs who identify with the rich. It's as if NOT identifying with their own class somehow makes themselves more superior. Now maybe the problem is that they don't recognize that they truly are poor. My definition is any person that HAS to go to work most mornings or risk living in a card board box while eating beans out of a can beside a garbage can fire. I call it the "Ho-bo-meter". The measure of how close you are to staking out a shopping cart to carry your few belongings to the pork-n-bean party.

Joe is connected to Keating.

This has to be another low, low point for the McCain campaign. How can any self resecting, aware, intelligent person not cringe with humiliation at supporting McCain.

He's making the Republcan party a laughing stock.

I agree with boneill and jeidel that we shouldn't dwell on Joe.  If anything, the more interesting question is why a Republican was attending an Obama event.  He apparently wasn't there to heckle.  So maybe he was there to hear the other candidate and see if Obama could convince him.  If so, then even though he came out for McCain, Joe deserves some credit for being open minded.

Vanwurs makes a good point about how the level of economic anxiety affects the election.  The problem for the Democrats is that, after they create prosperity, the newly prosperous abandon them.  Infrastructure, good schools, good health care make us all more prosperous.  Call it the trickle up theory.  Beyond this election, the Democrats really need to do a better job of showing the prosperous and the wannabe prosperous that paying taxes is an investment in being more prosperous.  

When Joe, in his third national iteration, called Obama's response to his tax question "a tap dance---almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr", I felt a repellent vibe that maybe explains his reluctance to support the Democrat.  Did anyone else?  (Just asking.)

I'm surprised that no one called that ignorant redneck out on that Sammy Davis comment. At that moment it was time to push Ignorant Joe off his soap box. His 15 minutes of fame had expired and he was stinking up the place.

Yeah, vestokes, I thought the same thing.  I figured the SD Jr crack would be the focus of this thread.  That comment, folks, is every bit as openly racist as that PA yokel with the monkey doll named "Little Hussein."  I have nothing against Sammy Davis Jr personally, but the man was the polar opposite of a proud, strong black man.  He was the apotheosis of the whole Step-n-Fetchit minstrel show nonsense, shuffling to charm a bit of change out of Whitey's pocket.  Why didn't Joe say that Obama did a tap dance worthy of Fred Astaire?

Just a little point here.

WSJ on their Editorial Page pointed out that Families at $ 100 k - $ 150k will pay 10% more taxes under Obama than current rates.  There is this perception that Obama's higher taxes kick in at $ 250K, but this is semantics.  Check it out in Monday Oct 13 WSJ Opinion Page.

Also, did you notice how low Katie Couric's Boobs are hanging?  It's throwing their Camara Man for a loop.  They are doing a whole upper body shot with her now, I guess not to cut her off at the breasts.  I knew she was getting up in the years, but I didn't realize the sag was setting in already.

No one forced him to give an interview on national TV. That was his choice. When you open your mouth in front of TV cameras, be ready for what may happen. He just couldn't resist his moment in the sun. No sympathy here. Next time, "just say no."