Who Is Joe The Plumber?

What else is fishy in this story? Well, Joe is apparently not a licensed plumber. As also reported by the New York Times in the first story mentioned above. According to Thomas Joseph, the business manager of Toledo-based Local 50 of the plumbers union, he has never served an apprenticeship and does not belong to the union and while Ohio doesn't have a statewide requirement for licenses, the City of Toledo does.

From the Times article:

"All contractors are licensed, and he does not have a license, either as a contractor or a plumber," the union official said, citing a search of government records. "I can't find that he's ever even applied for any kind of apprenticeship, and he has never belonged to local 189 in Columbus, which is what he claims on his Facebook page."

Interestingly, Joe's taxes most likely aren't going to go up. If the gross receipts for his business were $250,000 then, according to some tax analysts mentioned in the Times piece, his taxes would likely go down under Barack Obama's plan.

All of this is really irrelevant, however. Joe is just a regular guy, albeit one who makes a living far above the national average. A single father, trying to earn a living and provide for his son and but for the simple act of approaching a presidential candidate and asking a question about taxes, he'd be off doing his job or helping his son with his homework. But of course the McCain campaign grabbed on to Joe and ran, not once looking into the facts, hoping to paint McCain as the man who cares for the Joe Sixpacks of America. Well, CNN.com is reporting that "according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean annual wage for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters in the United States in 2007 was $47,350." They're the "Joe Sixpacks" who will get a tax cut from Obama's plan and none of them will own a business making a quarter of a million dollars any time soon.