With McCain, It's All About Joe
(MIAMI) – Although John McCain once referred to Barack Obama as the biggest celebrity in the world, it seems that blue-collar worker from Toledo, Ohio, is fast taking over that role – Joe the Plumber.
There are calls to draft Joe for Congress, Joe impersonators are showing up at Obama rallies, and now McCain is using him to attack Obama over his tax policy.
"Last weekend, Sen. Obama showed up in Joe's driveway to ask for his vote, and Joe asked Senator Obama a tough question. I'm glad he did; I think Senator Obama could use a few more tough questions," McCain said at a rally here today.
"The question Joe asked about our economy is important, because Sen. Obama's plan would raise taxes on small businesses that employ 16 million Americans. Sen. Obama's plan will kill those jobs at just the time when we need to be creating more jobs."
Obama has said his tax plan would "spread the wealth around," a concept McCain likened to welfare.
"When politicians talk about taking your money and spreading it around, you'd better hold onto your wallet. Sen. Obama claims that wants to give a tax break to the middle class, but not only did he vote for higher taxes on the middle class in the Senate, his plan gives away your tax dollars to those who don't pay taxes. That's not a tax cut, that's welfare," he said. "America didn't become the greatest nation on earth by redistributing wealth; we became the greatest nation by creating new wealth."
Obama has claimed that he will give a tax cut to 95% of all workers, and that those who make less than $250,000 a year will not see any tax increase. "Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class," Obama said today at a rally today in Roanoke, Virginia.