Daniel: Plumber's question should put Obama in toilet

Posted: Sunday, October 26, 2008

I've never seen the 1990 movie "Joe Versus the Volcano," but after watching media jackals punish Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, for flushing out Barack Obama's fondness for redistribution of wealth, I think his story is probably a better plot than the original.

You've heard of Joe. He's the Ohioan who had the audacity of hope enough to want to buy the plumbing business he works for, but misgivings about Obama's tax plan had him wondering if he could pull it off. Joe was in his yard playing football with his son when the Obama flotilla sailed up his street, presenting him with the chance to ask the candidate directly what impact his administration would have on his business.

In response to Joe's question about why the reward for working hard, saving, sacrificing and making right choices is higher taxes, Obama replied that some people are just going to get caught in the crossfire when he, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid control all three branches of government and move the country further left, solidifying a European-style nanny state where some have a right to their neighbor's paycheck.

OK, that's not what he said, but it's what he meant. What he said was, "It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success, too. When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Isn't it pretty to think so? Redistribution of wealth is built on covetousness, class envy, shirking of personal responsibility and a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature. While its faux-generosity allows many to feel better about their faux-compassion, it masks the specter of governmental power over the rights of the individual.

It also never works. No matter how "level" the playing field, not everyone will do what's necessary to provide for themselves. And why should they, when the alternative is simply casting a ballot for a candidate who promises to take from others what they feel entitled to? There used to be a name for that - stealing. Eventually, under this system, the tax base shrinks - and with it, ambition and opportunity - until no playing field remains, level or otherwise. When government is the source of wealth instead of the private sector, the people become indentured servants.

Joe the Plumber managed to do what the press and John McCain have been unwilling or unable to.

He got Barack Obama to openly, even casually, define his political worldview as socialism. We glimpsed this during a primary debate when Obama declared raising revenue by raising taxes a necessity. After moderator Charlie Gibson pointed out that cutting taxes actually scores government more revenue, Obama made this admission: Tax hikes aren't about revenue, but "fairness." So goes Obama's contempt for the Constitution.

Although not noted by the press, at the exact moment Obama answered Joe's question, our nation's founders turned over in their graves. Their Constitution provides for the collection of taxes to fund the military, build infrastructure and one or two other things, none of which is to ensure "fairness."

Stung, Obama betrayed how little he knows about small business. The day after his encounter with Joe, he asked, "How many of you know a plumber making $250,000?"

"I don't have any plumbers in my neighborhood making $250,000," screeched Obama's running mate, Joe Biden. (And FDR never went on television, "jobs" has four letters, and Katie's restaurant has been closed for 20 years, Sen. Biden).

After word of Joe the Plumber's hubris got around, hundreds of reporters descended to discredit the man who dared question hope-n-change. "He works under his boss's license," they sneered. "Why, he goes by his middle name!"

Which journalists staked out racist ministers, Kenyan despots, subprime bandits, foreign contributors or domestic terrorists to uncover Obama connections? Were reporters outside voter fraud/shake-down artist ACORN headquarters when "burglars" stole laptops requested by the FBI? Have they asked how Obama can give 95 percent of Americans a tax cut when 40 percent don't pay taxes? (Answer: Via a welfare check called a tax cut.) The founders' fears are realized. People are "voting" themselves other people's money.

The Most Dangerous Plumber in America sounded the alarm. Anybody listening?

Melanie Wilson Daniel is a local Banner-Herald columnist.


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