Joe the Plumber, a new spin

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2008
Joe the Plumber, a new spin
166
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 4:16pm

The appeal of Joe the Plumber is that he puts a face to a tax number. Even if he's really not earning that much or isn't even a plumber. I am married to someone who makes that much and let me try to make the same point from a different perspective.

Go ahead, raise my taxes Obama. You are right, I can afford it. But first I'd like you to meet Mike, Steve and Emily. I don't own a business or anything, but I do spend my money (you know, since I'm one of the have's, that's what we do). Obama wanta to spread my wealth around and here's how it will affect 3 people in the middle and lower income brackets.

Mike - Mike is a music school teacher. He does private lessons on the side to make a little extra, in addition to volunteering in a community band. He loves teaching and playing music. He teaches one of our children and we pay him $100/mo.

Steve - Steve works full time doing private music lessons. He has two kids who he pays child support for and he lives on the edge of poverty. Private lessons is his only source of income. We pay for him to instruct three of our children and me every week. We pay him $364/mo.

Emily - Emily works full time but became a mom at age 18 yo, has no education past high school and lives near the poverty level. She is on her own being recently divorced. She helps us out once or twice a week, earning $120-$160/mo.

I recalculated Obama's tax proposals and realized it will only cost my family $1,350/mo on average. I can cover almost half of that by cutting my budget back, not hiring the babysitter and doing away with private music lessons (they are luxury items anyway).

I'm sure Mike, Steve and Emily will be glad to know that instead of earning money from my family, they will get $500 refundable tax credit next year under Obama's plan. And maybe even if $300 stimulus check like they got from Bush in the past.

Make less and pay less in tax, that's Obama's plan for the middle class.

Pennsylvania Mom http://openlettertobarack.blogspot.com/

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 8:43pm
Well when the economy recovers my husband is hoping to start his own business, not sure the number of employees he'd have. If Obama gets elected it may never happen.



ETA: He's been working with Steve and others on the plan, he'd definitely hire Steve.





Edited 10/17/2008 8:45 pm ET by pennsylvaniamom2008
Pennsylvania Mom http://openlettertobarack.blogspot.com/
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 8:48pm

I think you should be happy to know that you're math is off, because you would have to be making

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 9:08pm

Well the $1,350 was an average monthly cost. We actually don't earn the same amount every month. Our income is higher than your estimate and our monthly household income is a lot lower. Our income is also higher the second half of the year after dh hits the social security ceiling. When we get bonus income we usually dump it into the college savings and if possible we'd hope to continue to save the same annually for that (though might be not be investing those savings in the market for now). So babysitters, music lessons and other extras would go before college savings would. We'll also cut out some other things that won't directly impact any one person's pocket book.

The idea for this post came up because I was looking at our budget to see what we could reasonable cut back on and started to think how hard it would be to cut those things because we like Mike, Steve and Emily.

Pennsylvania Mom http://openlettertobarack.blogspot.com/
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2007
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 9:15pm
Looking at same thing, I realized that we would be able to better afford ours.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2007
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 9:35pm

"By whom? All the people who know get a $500 tax credit will be sending their kids for private music lessons?"

Jess


Photobucket
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-06-2007
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 9:46pm

You may have mentioned this in a post I missed, but may I ask what your DH does for a living?


Chrissy
mom to Aidan 8/21/03
Grayson Blaine 12/30/07

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 9:48pm
Let me put it a different way then. Steve makes his living giving private music lessons. With the economy downturn he's already having to deal with people cutting back on extras. If you raise taxes on the majority of people who use his services, and they have to cut back even more, where is he going to go to replace them?
Pennsylvania Mom http://openlettertobarack.blogspot.com/
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2007
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 9:49pm

Another thing,

Jess


Photobucket
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 9:51pm
I'm not sure why that would matter, but he's a consultant.
Pennsylvania Mom http://openlettertobarack.blogspot.com/
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2007
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 9:51pm
While I am sure people will cut back, private music lessons for their children may not always be the first thing to go.
Jess


Photobucket

Pages