Some thoughts on Joe the Plumber

In the last debate John McCain brought Joe the Plumber in to the National spotlight. He used this man to attack Barrack Obama's stance on taxes. This attack hasn't set well with me and I have just now figured out why.

First McCain is distorting the facts. Lets say the Joe did buy a plumbing business and grew that business so that he had an income of $250,000 as McCain indicated. Although I do not know what Joe's current financial status is I am pretty sure that he would almost double his income if he were able to do this. (The average American income is about $44,000) Therefore per anyone's tax plan he would pay more taxes. That is the way the tax code is structured. The more money you make the more money in taxes you pay.

Secondly, if I understand Obama's tax plan correctly he wants to tax income above $250,000 at a higher rate. This gets to a deeper question that needs to be discussed. The question is how much money does someone need in America to live a comfortable life? Obama puts that threshold at $250,000. Almost 6 times the average Americans income. McCain has no threshold.

As a society I think this is a much needed conversation. With the economy about the take a nosedive, governments at all levels will need to make cuts, most likely cutting services that benefit the poor. Is there a way we can all live comfortably? Or as Micah tell us when we all have our own olive tree there will be peace. (Micah 4:3)