So is every hard-working, patriotic American who believes in limited government, the rule of law and the American Dream.

I’m a 35 year old trauma surgeon in Iowa. I have federally-sponsored student loans which will take years to pay off, but I am the one who worked 80-120 hours per week (for six years) at or below minimum wage to earn my training. I am Joe.

Being a single parent raising a daughter for the last 17 years and finding my way to self-employment in the same industry where I have worked for almost 40 years.

What I work for and earn, I expect to keep, not to let the government share my efforts to others who have not walked in my shoes.

My Paycheck – I earned it –
What makes anyone else entitled to any part of it?

You go, Joe!!

I’m a proud American, who happens to be gay and lives in Manhattan. I also understand that without the privileges and benefits this nation and its government provide, I would not have my paycheck. So yes, I’m willing to pay my fair share.

Until the republicans learn that people like me (an attorney and author living in Manhattan) are also “Joe” they will lose. We are all “Joe.”

the finest statement I’ve seen all year!

“And while the mistakes that I’ve made in my life are mine, they’re only an excuse to not listen to me if you want ‘em to be.”

Wish I could put that much in a single sentence. Wow!

I also live in Maryland. Where do you live in Maryland? I live in Silver Spring. It would appear that there are conservatives within the great liberal state of Maryland! It is just as well as if God told Elijah that there were 7,000 Jews reserved unto Him that did not kneel before Baal…

Oh well…

.

I don’t have much right now. I work 60-70 hours a week. My company does not pay me for any hours that I put in beyond 40 hrs.. Most of that work is voluntary on my part to make sure I stay ahead of the curve. Also I want to stop working for my company and start something on my own. Make my hours and my thinking count. I don’t think setting up my own business is fantasy. That’s my dream. I am working towards that dream. If I get my efforts and timing right I should be able to make it. Even if I don’t make it big it won’t be for lack of efforts.

I am taxed and that money is used for welfare by the government for those who don’t work or can’t work is an idea I find hard to stomach. If my money has to go to charity I must make that decision.

I definitely am Joe.

I love the graphic and will be making labels & stickers!

Born and raised in rural Virginia, live in North Carolina. Three beautiful daughters, a working wife who reminds me a great deal of Sarah Palin. Paid for my own college education, started my career working second shift in a manufacturing facility and worked my way up to where I am now. Conforming mortgage that is paid on time, every time, excellent marksman and do my own plumbing, including sweating joints on copper pipe.

Darn straight I am Joe.

Joe is my brother in more ways than most would imagine. They are not the same person physically, but they are the same person in their life stories.

My brother didn’t graduate from high school. He became an unlicensed plumber assistant – like the real Joe.

A few years later, he went to night school and got his GED, followed by more night school for his plumbers license.

In time, he became very good at what he did, and he went to more night school and got his master plumber’s license. Followed shortly by his contractors license.

He now owns his own plumbing company.

Not bad for a high school drop out with a “fantasy”, or more aptly put by us real people, “a dream”. My big brother is a real person, and he has always been my hero who I looked up too. He is the reason why I went back to school for my degree.

Barry Obama and the MSM denigrate and destroy decent people, like my brother, on the 6 O’clock news for sport as long as they obtain the power they want.

My brother is not a perfect man like any of us, and most certainly like me. However, he is a good and decent man who I admire.

Joe is my brother, and he is my role model who I look up too. The MSM wants to destroy my dreams by way of destroying my big brother. These people have no shame or morals and they make me want to puke.

I too have plans of starting my own business and move away from “working for the man”. Obama will make sure these dreams/plans are taxed out of existence. I too am Joe… or in my case, Jose.

But I am married to a guy that could easily be Joe. And his dad is most definitely an older Joe.

It looks like the whole “Joe the plumber” and “spread the wealth” issue has flopped. I thought it would gain some traction, but it didn’t.

fair share is a dem code word for i will take from joe’s and give to our lazy, uneducated voters.

I have a small business, I have employees, and if more of my gross income has to go to the government then less will go to my employees, and one might lose his job.

The Obama’s made millions the last few years. Why don’t they write a check to the government? They don’t need a law to do that. Like he told Joe, his success shouldn’t come at the expense of those less successful. Where’s the check? Biden gave less than a thousand to charity last year. Where’s his check? The truth is, these lefists don’t walk the walk. Caviar anyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW_amaVOq3E

…under Obama’s plan…

Even by his own admission.

But I suppose it’s more fun to lionize a regular guy on the (false) notion that Obama’s tax plan would raise his taxes and spoil his noble dream.

I am Joe the Plumber in all the ways that matter except one: Joe the Plumber obviously didn’t realize how comprehensively evil some of Barack Obama’s supporters are when he dared to ask The One The Question.

It’s like that scene at the end of Time Bandits after the Supreme Being destroys Evil and everything is winding down. [Side note: if there was ever a movie that begged for a sequel, Time Bandits is it.]

Joe is there going around sweeping up bits and pieces of Evil and someone didn’t warn him:

Supreme Being: Do be careful! Don’t lose any of that stuff. That’s concentrated evil. One drop of that could turn you all into hermit crabs.

Joe didn’t realize that he was asking a question of Concentrated Evil.

In every other respect I am Joe.

I am a 39 year old self-employed homeschooling father of three.

I owed more money on my taxes this year than I was able to pay. It was Social Security Taxes (which I know I’ll never see again). I arranged a payment plan with the IRS. My tax burden took priority over paying other bills.

I don’t want a hand-out from Obama to help with my “tax burden,” I want to be able to opt-out of Social Security and instead put the money into something that will be there when I retire.

I hope one day to be one of the people Obama considers “rich,” but the closer I get to that the further away it looks because more and more of my hourly fee goes to the government.

If Obama has his way, by the time I’m “rich” I’ll taking home (after taxes) less than I was when I was “middle class” but working more hours.

I am a 49-year-old computer systems administrator. I also work part-time as a youth football referee. I have six children and two step-children. Five of them still live at home and are going to school.

My parents taught me to work hard, and make yourself the best you can be. All my learning has been on-the-job until 5 years ago when I began going to college. I will graduate in May.

I’ve worked hard for my money, and it belongs to me and my children, and those that WE choose to share it with.

I am a Politically active, Vegetarian, Non-smoker from the Bad side of Broward county.

Don’t F* with me!

There are so few small businesses in America these days because people tend to do as much of their business as possible at the biggest and cheapest places out there. Local electronics workers are out of business to Best Buy, Local hardware store owners are out of business to Home Depot, local restaurants are out of business to Chili’s and the like, and everybody’s out of business to Walmart. Small businesses are disappearing because the American way of doing business is changing. If you’d like, you can lay this change at the feet of Bill Clinton’s economic policies as much as at the feet of the Bush legacy–I personally think both had a hand in it. But it is silly to say that small business is just now going to be threatened by a potential %3 tax increase on earnings over 250K. The death knell of small business was rung a long time ago, and it wasn’t rung by those who would have regulated capitalism, it was rung by those who thought that capitalism could do no wrong.

sorry, had to say it.

Obambam is out on the trail again trying to CHANGE (obscure) and distract from his original admission of being a Champion of Socialism. He mixes and matches, at his leisure, the different Taxes. He keeps trying to dodge the fact that his FEDERAL INCOME TAX PROGRAM will be WELFARE, by taking more Federal Income Tax from many, to redistribute TO several WHO PAY NONE!

His dodge now?!?! To obscure the issue by pointing out that some of those who will be receiving his Welfare checks pay Payroll Taxes. So, basically he wants to subsidize some folks’ Social Security obligation!!! If the moron is concerned about the unfairness of how expensive Social Security, Medicare, State and City taxes, etc…. all are on our Paychecks – why doesn’t he put forth a tax plan to provide an exemption to ALL (that is FAIR) for say the first $10,000 we all make. No-one pays any tax of any kind, by Federal mandate (the kind Liberals/Socialists love) on the first $10,000.

Better yet, how about we finally tie Taxation to the Minimum Wage?!?!? If it is indeed the Minimum Wage, why shouldn’t everyone get to keep each and every penny of that Wage?!?!
MinWage * 40 hours * 52 weeks = Exempt Income – PERIOD!!!
Of course, never gonna happen as it doesn’t allow Liberals to play with the tax-code and disguise WELFARE as TAX CUT. That would be the ONLY way I’d support the notion of a Minimum Wage (still reluctantly), if Tax Exemption was tied to it. Everyone truly benefits from it then.

We keep hearing the Lib’s blame Republicans with “distraction” politics. All the MSM does is attempt to “distract” everyone away from Lib/Leftist/Socialist (oops, sorry, it’s called “Progressive” these days) plans. In this case by avoiding Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment by attacking “Joe the Plumber.”

No, really. I am. My first name is Joe.

So at any rate, has that logo at the top of this thread been put on a bumper sticker yet? Would love to see a sea of cars with “I am Joe” proudly displayed on the back bumpers. Way cool, that would be.

Guess those “bumper stickers” will have to be printed and applied with duct tape.

My husband and myself have worked very hard to get where we are today in our careers and while we definitely fall below 250K WE are taxed to the hilt….WHEN Obama says he is only going to tax the 2% at the TOP he is a LIAR and you know why? because those RICH people place their money elsewhere they are not paying taxes and they are supporting YOUR JOB…..it has always BEEN the middle class that has PAID this countries TAXES and it will be YOU AND ME AND JOE AND JANE who will pay because the “poor” don’t pay taxes already and the rich don’t pay taxes on income either they put it elsewhere…

REMEMBER IT IS YOU AND ME THAT PAY THE TAXES IN THIS COUNTRY AND BARACK OBAMA IS A LIAR!

Doing what I can..

I was a mechanic for years, then the 0% craze after 9/11 flooded the market with new under warranty cars. Since I did not work at a dealership, I started driving truck. A few years ago in order to start a family I got back in to wrenching. I work 45 hours a week as a mechanic and another 20-25 hours a week delivering pizzas..

I am joe. I want to buy the repair shop I work in or start my own.

Obama better not get in the way of my dreams!

I am joe.

Opened my own small business a year ago with every penny I saved. No loans, no handouts. Unfortunately, no health insurance yet til I “make it”. No employess yet til I “make it”. No free time to speak of, no family picinics on the weekends. BUT, I am happy. Happy to live out this dream, happy to donate when I can and happy to know that I will make it with hard work, dedication and encouragement. I am Josephine, a proud conservative Republican who believes in American freedoms and the right to live a life that I designed for myself and by myself. I will make damn sure that my business keeps on building and growing by pushing McCain everyday to every customer that walks in my store.

Joe the plumber is we the people.

He is the mother, the father, the electrician the software the developer. He is a cook a dentist a CEO. Don’t you get it?

But I want to be.

I’m in that 40% who don’t pay income tax and get extra money from the Feds every year. It’s wrong and I want it to stop. There should be NO refundables in the tax code. I don’t want Obama to share the wealth with me. I want him to leave me alone.

n/t

God bless you. You’re gonna get out of the hole you’re in, and make a success of yourself. This is America, and you will make it if you just keep on trying and keep your dreams. My family and I will pray for you. You hang in there!