So all of a sudden everybody has finally discovered that Sen. Obama,
with his comment to Joe the Plumber, plans to ". . . spread the wealth
around." We should all be worried.

Months ago, Sen. Obama and the Democratic members of the House and
Senate indicated they would tax the "windfall profits" of the oil
companies. Allow me to translate.

We will confiscate and steal the profits that belong to the
shareholders of the oil companies and distribute them to people who
never risked a single cent or invested in those companies, just
because it is "fair."

Everybody cheers, not realizing that some of those profits belong to
the pension plans of police, firemen, teachers, city, county and state
employees, retired people, and thousands of 401(k)s. I suspect even
some of those plumber and pipefitters unions have money invested in
those companies.

I came from Cuba. I have seen this movie before, and I know how it
ends. I have heard the same lines, spoken by different actors, the
Castro brothers in my case and more recently by Hugo Chávez in
Venezuela. With all his refined education and eloquence, Mr. Obama is
just another socialist who thinks that our American-trained socialists
will make socialism work here, while all those others around the world
have failed. We are so much smarter here.


Luis Vicens
Pembroke Pines, Fla.



In the footsteps of Joe the Plumber, I would also like to publicly
confess that Sen. Obama's tax package will hurt my small business. I
must stress that I have never been given preferential treatment, nor
did I use any resource not available to everyone in this country. I
graduated from a public high school and a state college and merely
chose to use those resources to advance myself.

My family consists of husband and wife plus two children in college
and three still at home. Even though my small business has made me
"rich" and earned over $250,000 last year, I am somehow still not
sitting on a pile of money. Maybe part of the reason is that, as a
result of being declared "rich," we will pay over $174,000 in federal
and state taxes, plus local property taxes. Nonetheless, Sen. Obama
has confessed that I will have my taxes increased, resulting in less
profit for me to put back into the company. This will ultimately lead
to the company having fewer opportunities to grow the business and
provide more work for more people.
Does this sound like a bad plan to anyone else?

Dennis Glaser
Terrace Park, Ohio




Wrench Turns Tighter for Enterprising Joe the Plumber


Regarding your editorial "Senator Government" (Oct. 16): As another
"Joe the Plumber" who is a small business owner and making close to
Barack Obama's target wage, I can tell you what happens when the
"rich" are soaked. Can anyone remember the luxury tax? Who got hurt by
that? The rich? They had to live without their new yachts. The people
who got soaked were the boat builders and their employees who didn't
have any yachts to build. It is not the government's job to "spread
the wealth."


Besides which, small corporations such as mine don't "pay" taxes. We
transfer the money from our customers to the federal government. Think
about that the next time you purchase something from a small business
-- how much of what you are paying is going straight to Uncle Sam.
Just another greedy finger in our pie.

Joe Clark
Master Plumber
Austin, Texas