Kill the messenger!

By David Singh

It's no longer an issue about Obama's tax plan and its effect on a foolish "Average Joe" afflicted with the American Dream disease. Nope, the issue is the credibility of the one asking The One an uncomfortable question that demonstrated his fragility while temporarily un-cocooned. After all, it was The One who descended upon Joe the Plumber's neighborhood, unannounced.

Yesterday the AP's report about Joe the plumber began a paragraph with, "As he leaned against the Dodge Durango SUV parked in his driveway..." Those are "code words" used to induce hate for Joe: Joe the plumber has an SUV in his driveway. That makes him a bad person who wants to injure Gaia -- and prevent Obama from halting the rise of sea levels. Naturally, those code words are infinitely less explosive than describing Obama as "skinny."

I'd like to think there are tens of millions of Joe the Plumbers out there -- men and women -- dreaming about working their tails off, of working for themselves. Obama's life story illustrates the machinations of a man working his tail off to control the outcome of everyone's American Dream -- and place a target on the back of those that achieve their American Dream.

Indeed, a consequence of Obama's tax plan, even if unintentional, will allow the following:

Say, Joe the plumber does buy the plumbing business and is successful -- $250,000 per year successful. Consequently, Joe must be compelled to exhibit his "neighborliness" and "patriotism" by "redistributing" a few thousand dollars more of his income to his next-door neighbors, Sam the slug and Sam's wife and two children. After all, Sam deserves a chance to get ahead.

See, Sam inherited his parent's modest house and works just enough to hit the sweet spot of the Earned Income Credit -- currently a $4,716 "refund" check for 2007 -- and then Sam spends the rest of the year drinking beer and watching Jerry Springer while sitting on his couch in his underwear. Joe the plumber "owes" Sam the slug a few more thousand dollars. Don't believe me? Just ask Obama.