Not this silly business again.

This has already been hashed out, ad nausea um, here  http://people.bakersfield.c...

It's not the lack of a license that disqualifies him from being a "real plumber" it's the lack of a journeyman training and skills.

People are losing their homes, their jobs and can't feed their families. The reason people attacked Joe wasn't because he wasn't licensed, it was because he was turned into another folksy, fake Americana icon. People want answers and if they are not getting the ones they want, they will always find a flaw with whatever is put in their way to distract them from the real issues.

A unlicensed plumber takes work away from a licensed plumber, a person who put the time, and money into obtaining a license. That serves only to degrade this image of Joe - the all american stereotype that fits us all like a mold. The license is required to make sure the person doing the work is knowledgeable. A plumber without proper training can flood an entire house or cause issues for the city sewer system, so it becomes a very expensive problem to fix. Anyone can figure out how to handle most electrical situations, but if we all handled our own electrical work, houses would be burned to the ground.

The people want answers, not talking points and not cheesy crap about "small town America". Those things are inane bull and about as useful in 2008 as the feel good kitsch they drove in on. Neither candidate is giving the answers that a lot of people really want to hear and unfortunately Joe was caught in the cross fire.

Joe became famous mainly because of the answer Obama gave revealing economic socialistic worldview of using the government to spread wealth around.

Licensed plumbers also take work away from non-licensed plumbers. So what? What’s your point? If getting a license was important to people then you couldn’t compete in the plumbing market without one. You should not have to get a license. It’s absolutely ridiculous government regulation and a totalitarian dagger in the back of liberty to support the idea that we need government permission to work on our neighbors toilet.

The point is that the claim “he’s not a plumber” is false and irrelevant.

Well Axiomtek, it sound like you have the answer to everything.  When you have time, maybe you'll explain the meaning of life to the rest of us.

In the meantime, take it from me that you don't know jack about skilled trades or the real craftmen who work in them.

JOe the plumber is not a plumber.  He's a plumber's helper.

If he says he's a plumber I'll take it for what it is. I agree. It doesn't matter. It's the fact that he says he wanted to not pay more taxes and the "experts" say that he would pay less under Obama and retort with something along the lines of, "who's to say that won't change?" (paraphrasing) when interviewed. Why vote against your interest? Or is low tax liability really his interest?

Spam code:shagi

Obama has been giving that answer for some time I don't see how it was revealing unless you haven't been listening to him. He's been saying that since the primaries.

AudreyB, i'm sorry you're upset. If you're interested in having a discussion and perhaps respond to my arguments instead of simply making claims about my intentions and knowledge you know where to go. He is a Plumber, and if you dissagree with me respond to my argument.

If you had gotten the plumber I had (took advantage of a "widow woman and her half idiot child,he did)(LOL)..you might be more inclined to want a licensed plumber. My guy was but as he took off to another state....whats a girl to do? Her own darn plumbing~ at least then I know where to find the bum...

Joe is a Plumber. He's just not recognized by his county (maybe even state) as one.

You don't upset me, newbie, I'm just amused at your audacity.

Thats good, i dont mean to upset anyone. :)

Despite the nation's income disparity, McCain sees Obama's exchange with "Joe the Plumber" as a means to appeal to anyone who resents paying taxes to subsidize less wealthy people. His running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, criticized "Barack the wealth-spreader" in a campaign speech Tuesday in Reno, Nev.

"Obama responded while campaigning in Florida. He said McCain, like President Bush, wants to "give more and more to those with the most, and hope prosperity trickles down to everyone else." He said McCain has accused him of being "more concerned with who gets your piece of the pie than with growing the pie."

After eight years of "Bush-McCain economics," Obama said, "the pie is now shrinking."

Obama has proposed higher taxes on the wealthy, and tax cuts for most other households. He would end the Bush administration's tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 a year, he says. He also would impose a new Social Security payroll tax on incomes above $250,000 a year. Currently, all annual income up to $102,000 is taxed at 12.4 percent for Social Security, with employers and workers splitting the cost evenly.

As for the claim that Obama might turn the Internal Revenue Service into a "giant welfare agency," liberal groups note that the number of Americans on welfare fell by more than 60 percent after a 1996 overhaul of the program approved by President Clinton."Read the rest here

Don't want to upset anybody? Boy you are new! You will upset some,and be upset yourself~ Welcome by the way.

The two rebates I've received under the George W Bush administration(one while I was out of country working for a foreign firm paying no US taxes) I would consider to be welfare along with the recent bailouts.

Actually I'll take respond to your claims one by one

1.) Just cause he does some plumbing work doesn't make him a plumber, just like if I mess around the wires in my house, it doesn't make me an electrician, or if I carve my turkey does that make me a butcher? Nope, the word plumber is a title, a title that must be earned.

2.) You are right, the powers to plumb (weird) are not given by the license, rather a license show minimum competence, it shows you have the skills for whatever title you are trying to earn. Way before licenses, there was a term called getting "grandfathered" and learned via apprenticeship, but today our society, and mostly everything is very complicated and so minimum standards had to be set.

3.) ummm not sure about your third point, but it seems you are advocating getting rid of licenses? You don't need a license to go work on your friends sink, you need a license to have someone pay you, and advertise yourself as a trained plumber. I mean what if Doctors, Nurses, and Paramedics, didn't need licenses? I could just as well say, hell I'll provide those services, and not know how to do them. Protecting americans, by having to prove you meet a minimum standard is unamerican? HUH? If you have ever been in a car accident you should be happy those companies have minimum standards.

4.) True using that statement is incorrect if they're trying to discredit him, that bein an ad-hominem attack. 

I've heard plenty of this Joe the Plumber, but I don't know much, I wont pretend to know much about plumbing. I do know that it's more complicated a job than you may think

The license is probably a way for local plumbers to monopolize the business and keep out outsiders. Plumbers know how to lobby, too.

This is why people didn't like Joe the Plumber. He is getting more attention than the family with no income or home.

My best friend is an appraiser because she was licensed to do such work, just as my hairdresser is such because she passed the exam. Both of them could have done either job without a license, but that doesn't make them either.

The point is Joe is not a plumber in the eyes of the government, so by US standards, joe is in fact not a plumber.

The license is probably a way for local plumbers to monopolize the business and keep out outsiders

Wrong on so many levels.

Just like doctors and nurses, a plumber's license is earned. You can't just walk up to the counter, plonk down your money and walk away with a license.

You can't get bonded or obtain insurance without the license.  Would you want an unbonded or uninsured hack working on your plumbing or installing the plumbing in your new house?

I would definitely not want some uninsured hack (or Joe the Plumber) doing any work in my house. I agree that it may be a good idea to have licensed plumbers, but it essentially keeps plumbers out (whether they're good or bad).   With that being said, you can still have a licensed plumber that does some horrible work because they have just enough competence to get a license. The consumer just has some sort of protection under the law.