Friday, January 10, 2014

LEAKING!




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, 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 Affordable Plumbing Act of 2013.' Surprised you haven't heard of it."

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 'Joe's Affordable 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 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."

21 comments:

Bloviating Zeppelin said...

Nice analogy.

BZ

JonBerg said...

This is so good I can't add a thing. I doubt, however, that some of the Liberal readers will grasp the concept!

Ducky's here said...

Yet the fringe right will support non progressive taxation which damages the purchasing power of the poor.

They will also support lower tax rates than middle class rates on carried interest for hedge fund and venture capital vultures.

Joe the Plumber is their Pied Piper, 'nuff said.

It's like their whining about "one world government" while fast rack of the latest trade bill monstrosity makes its way through Congress and we surrender our regulatory authority.

But they can't add a thing.
Immensely sad.

Joe said...

JonBerg: I read your comment and you were immediately proved correct with Ducky's comment. But you know what? Ducky is incapable of seeing how wrong he is. It is impossible for him. He is already convinced that he knows more than ANYBODY who does not subscribe to his misguided philosophy.

Remember Ben Gazi said...

Don't know if you have seen this yet but here it is ..Late Breaking News!

U.S. deploys military advisers to Somalia
The U.S. military has deployed a number of uniformed trainers and advisers to the failed state of Somalia for the first time since 1993, when two helicopters were shot down and 18 Americans were killed in the failed “Black Hawk Down” operation. (Washington Post)

Anonymous said...

From Z of Geeeez;

Remember Ben Gazi...are you KIDDING us? What's this, another start of another war? The OBAMA WAR (or continuation..he's got the war in Afghanistan now since he did NOT pull out as promised, he has the war on the middle class as he screws them out of the health care they enjoyed, he's got the war against the rich who are supposed to screw it all and give it all away, he's got the war on decency with how he handled Fast & Furious, Solyndra, the NSA thing, the HIDEOUS and TELLING IRS misadventures (which, if done by a Republican, would be a HUGE STORY even know..it'd be called OBAMAGATE if Obama was a Republican...)..

Ducky, well, hell..you know those Republicans; they just don't read THE NATION so they're just not catching on.

Trekkie4Ever said...

Ha! Ha! This was great!

Ed Bonderenka said...

Obama has the war on women and the war on poverty.
The Little Sisters of the Poor can tell you that.

Remember Ben Gazi said...


Z, I;m only the messenger:

Here 's what I just found.

Washington Post ‎- 8 minutes ago
For the first time since “Black Hawk Down” in '93, U.S. deploys small number of military advisers to Somalia.

The U.S. military has deployed a small number of uniformed trainers and advisers to the failed state of Somalia for the first time since 1993, when two helicopters were shot down and 18 Americans were killed in the failed “Black Hawk Down” operation.

A cell of U.S. military personnel has been stationed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu since last fall to advise and coordinate operations with African troops fighting to wrest control of the country from the al-Shabab militia, an Islamist group whose leaders have professed loyalty to al-Qaeda, according to three U.S. military officials.

Kenosha Marge said...

Just look how the media is covering the Chris Christie story! Wouldn’t it have been great if they did the same about Bengazhi?
The Media and especially the NY Times are playing up the Chris Christie story and playing down Benghazi to facilitate the 2014 election of Hillary Clinton.
The NYT is shilling for Hillary Clinton - If she has the audacity to run, just run the video giving evidence to Congress, looking like a demented "wicked witch of the west", saying "what does it matter now". Well lady, it matters very much to great number of people! During the campaign just play that piece of video, over and over, and over again.
Its just more propaganda, but we the people can't let this die like the Americans did at Benghazi. We have to remember this, and remember how there really has been no investigation and certainly no accountability for this. We need and have to hold Obama and Hillary directly responsible and when the democrats put Hillary in the race for president we need to remind everyone of Hillarys' stance and convenient amnesia when it came to Benghazi. We don't need politicians like Hillary in any form of power and we certainly do not need a deceiver n chief in the white-house, enough talk its time to act. We need to fight our battles locally, and win but also never lose sight of the big picture and that is the deceit and scandals in Washington and those that are responsible for them. We the people must unite and let the gov't know we are tired of their elitest altitudes and hold them responsible for their actions.
The New York Times is a dirty fish rag covering for a low life piece of trash AKA HILARY CLINTON

Baysider said...

"... the fringe right will support non progressive taxation which damages the purchasing power of the poor."

Unequal ("progressive") taxation strongly dis-incentivizes the poor. It also dis-incentivizes the 'rich' (the top 10% who pay 70% of the taxes), limits the capital available to create jobs, and limits better opportunities for the poorer. THIS seriously damages their purchasing power. And keeps more dependent on the government for handouts. Not to mention shrinking the tax base and state and federal revenues.

I was never employed by a poor man.

Great post, Z. Simple and exaggerated with humor -- makes it easy for anyone to understand the ramifications of policies in real life.

Ducky's here said...

(the top 10% who pay 70% of the taxes)
-----
Bull.

Tax income is roughly equally split between payroll(SSI) and income tax.

The fact that you don't know that earns an automatic dismissal.

Talent On Loan from Synthetic Morphine is a poor source of talking points.

Baysider said...

See what happens when you round the numbers? You get puckish rejection of reality. Ducky isn't the first lefty who has dismissed the facts and his mind to me and poured his heart into his argument instead.

The top 10% pay 71% of all federal taxes (yes, we're talkin' feds here, to keep it simple). They earn 43% of the income. A percent that has increased substantially in the last generation.(1) For good measure, [federal] taxes per household have more than doubled in inflation adjusted dollars since I was a teenager.(2) Whew!

Source 1: Internal Revenue Service
Source 2: US Census Bureau and Office of Management and Budget

Baysider said...

that would be federal INCOME taxes.

Kid said...

One could argue that tax paid by 'the rich', when we're talking about the vast majority of the rich, those being business owners and corporations... is not paid by the rich at all. It's paid by the middle class.

That tax is nothing more than a cost of goods sold. Like energy, mfg equipment, payroll, whatever, it all gets added into the price of the goods or services and We therefore pay the tax.

Now if you're talking wall street type rich like goldman sachs people that don't produce anything then yea, they may actually pay some tax, but like warren buffet as an example, it's small number because it is the tax rate on dividend earnings, 15% ?
And hey, warren, when are you going to pay your billion in back taxes?

If you're talking federal employees, they don't pay anything. They file, they just don't pay. They owe 3 billion at last count.

Kid said...

duck, provide a complete description for 'fringe right'.

Like if this were 1776, the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be 'fringe right' under your definition right?
That would make you an enemy of the Unites States. Right?

Z said...

Baysider, even I was stunned at Ducky's remark; Honestly, he REALLY DOESN'T KNOW THAT?


Ducky...seriously, I'm amazed. you just cannot be THAT myopic...it's not normal. "roughly split"? HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! Wait...if so many are making nearly nothing because they're slouches and so many are on welfare, do you SEE IT YET, DUCKY? GET THE PICTURE? :-)
WAKE UP, for goodness sake.
This REALLY surprised me. Everyone on the PLANET knows about 70% pay all the taxes but you INSIST. As I said "Time to stop reading only THE NATION, Ducky!"

Baysider, thanks. :-)

amazing

Kenoshe Marge..welcome and YOU GO, GIRL! IMAGINE if ONE of the Obama scandals got half the attention the silly little Christie story got?
this is ALL ABOUT HILLARY, Marge; you are SO RIGHT. This is RUBBISH.
I'm not a huge Christie fan and even I THINK it's RUBBISH.

Z said...

Kid..Ducky will now disappear. I can't tell you how many times I've asked him to define "FRINGE RIGHT" as if he's not fringe LEFT? :-)

Ya, and define CALVINISM and THEN explain how you can hate Christianity and be Catholic. Ducky's an enigma..hilarious..

Ducky's here said...

Doesn't know what,z?

Doesn't know that the wealthy simply look at the money they have lying around and say, "What the heck, let's hire a few people."

Although I do like the allusion of being "given" a job.

But anyway, if people do not have sufficient wealth to generate demand, why would the wealthy hire anyone?

Plus, he continues to neglect payroll taxes in his calculations.

No, you have a very superficial view.

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
--- John Steinbeck

Baysider said...

With the addition of payroll taxes, the top 20% pay 69% of all federal individual taxes, per The US Congressional Budget Office.

JonBerg said...

"Tax income is roughly equally split between payroll(SSI) and income tax."

Yes , thanks to LBJ, 58,000 dead in Viet Nam, while he made millions , Social Security is bankrupt; into the General Fund. Aren't you proud? And how about those who pay NOTHING in Income Tax; about 50%? I'm getting weary of going along with your BS just to be part of the rest!