He certainly got plenty of airtime.
For those of you who don’t know what that exchange was all about, McCain and Obama were referring to an impromptu encounter between Obama and Toledo, Ohio, plumber Joe Wurzelbacher. Jake Tapper, at ABC News, has the full video.
The short version: Wurzelbacher is a plumber looking to buy a company. He’s concerned that Obama’s tax plan will raise his taxes. That may well be true. As we’ve written before, some small businesses are organized in such a way that their owners file taxes on their business as individuals. That means that any business owner whose business income was more than $200,000 per year (or $250,000 if they file taxes as a couple) would see a tax increase under Obama’s plan.
If Joe the Plumber is going to see a tax increase under a possible Obama administration, it’s because his company is earning at least $200,000 per year.