this is from forbes.com:
McCain And Obama Try For The Plumber Vote
Joe the Plumber became the everyman taxpayer for the first exchange of the debate. John McCain said that Barack Obama would raise taxes on Joe. Obama said he would cut taxes for 95 percent of all workers. How much does Joe the Plumber earn? The Bureau of Labor Statistics says most plumbers make around $20 an hour, or about $40,000 a year.
It might not seem that way to anyone who has to hire a plumber to fix a leaky faucet, but only the top 10 percent of plumbers make as much as $35 an hour, or $70,000 a year. Is that the type of plumber McCain and Obama had in mind?
According to Obama, the only plumbers who would pay more in taxes under his tax plan would be plumbers who run their own businesses and make more than $250,000 a year.
–Carl Lavin