We can do without Joe the Plumber

Thanks to television and political strategists, American political campaigns are increasingly driven by pseudo-issues. Joe the Plumber is the latest false issue that is dominating campaign rhetoric, despite the fact that Joe Wurzelbacher's situation is more urban legend than fact.

John McCain brought up Wurzelbacher in the final presidential debate as he went after Barack Obama's tax plan. Wurzelbacher was caught on camera telling Obama at a campaign stop that he wanted to buy the plumbing company he worked for, but Obama's tax plan would punish him by raising his taxes if he did so. Obama brushed off the accusation, offering a generality about tax fairness and "spreading" the money and tax burden.

McCain's take is that Obama would raise the taxes of "wealthy" Americans, which includes many working-class business owners like Joe the Plumber, and he has hammered this theme in campaign commercials and speeches.

There are a few problems with this scenario. First, Joe the Plumber, it turns out, isn't a licensed plumber, so he can't buy the company and can't even legally work as a plumber without a license. Second, it turns out Joe isn't keen on paying his current taxes. The state has a tax lien on his house because of unpaid back taxes. Third, his complaint that Obama would raise his taxes would apply only if he earns more than $250,000 a year as a business owner. It is true that many small businesses pay taxes as individual income, and some small businesses would be affected by the Obama tax plan, but most small business owners don't net $250,000 in a year. They wish they could.

So Joe the Plumber, which has become the buzz of the campaign this week, is a false issue.

Political candidates, like writers, have discovered that arguments come alive when they can be exemplified by one person's plight. So candidates like to cite this unemployed steelworker or that single mother or some bakeshop owner to illustrate their political arguments. Al Gore was so adept at this, he drove me to distraction.

But these individualized illustrations run the risk of skewing the truth and misleading listeners. After the past week, more Americans probably know the details of Joe the Plumber's life than know the difference between the McCain and Obama tax proposals.

Americans should have a long enough attention span for the candidates to debate their tax differences. McCain wants to keep the Bush-era income tax rate reductions and lower some other tax rates that mostly benefit wealthier Americans. Obama wants to raise taxes on higher-income Americans (over $250,000) while keeping tax cuts for less-affluent taxpayers. Arguments can be made for either plan — without confusing the issue with talk about a scofflaw's dream of buying out his boss.