Wednesday's third and final presidential debate hit an emotional note for not only Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, but for Joe the Plumber. During the final presidential debate at Hofstra University, both candidates addressed where Joe the Plumber, also known as Joe Wurzelbacher, stood in their tax and health care plans.
McCain went on to explain how every American family underneath his health care plan would receive a $5,000 refundable tax credit. Also underneath his tax plan, Joe would not see an increase in his capital gains tax, nor would he get fined for not adopting a health care plan once Joe buys his small plumbing business. McCain continued to say how Obama wanted to set up health care bureaucracies and rejects the single payer system. So "if you like that, you'll love Canada and England."
Though McCain tried to use the plumber from Holland, Ohio to his advantage, it simply didn't go as planned. Obama clarified where Joe the Plumber would be in his health and tax care plans:
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OBAMA: I just described what my plan is. And I'm happy to talk to you, Joe, too, if you're out there. Here's your fine -- zero. You won't pay a fine, because...
MCCAIN: Zero?
OBAMA: Zero, because as I said in our last debate and I'll repeat, John, I exempt small businesses from the requirement for large businesses that can afford to provide health care to their employees, but are not doing it.
I exempt small businesses from having to pay into a kitty. But large businesses that can afford it, we've got a choice. Either they provide health insurance to their employees or somebody has to.
Right now, what happens is those employees get dumped into either the Medicaid system, which taxpayers pick up, or they're going to the emergency room for uncompensated care, which everybody picks up in their premiums.
The average family is paying an additional $900 a year in higher premiums because of the uninsured.
So here's what we do. We exempt small businesses. In fact, what, Joe, if you want to do the right thing with your employees and you want to provide them health insurance, we'll give you a 50 percent credit so that you will actually be able to afford it.
If you don't have health insurance or you want to buy into a group plan, you will be able to buy into the plan that I just described.
Now, what we haven't talked about is Sen. McCain's plan. He says he's going to give you all a $5,000 tax credit. That sounds pretty good. And you can go out and buy your own insurance.
Here's the problem -- that for about 20 million people, you may find yourselves no longer having employer-based health insurance. This is because younger people might be able to get health insurance for $5,000, young and healthy folks.
Older folks, let's healthy folks, what's going to end up happening is that you're going to be the only ones left in your employer-based system, your employers won't be able to afford it.
And once you're out on your own with this $5,000 credit, Sen. McCain, for the first time, is going to be taxing the health care benefits that you have from your employer.
And this is your plan, John. For the first time in history, you will be taxing people's health care benefits.
By the way, the average policy costs about $12,000. So if you've got $5,000 and it's going to cost you $12,000, that's a loss for you.
Last point about Sen. McCain's plan is that insurers right now, the main restrictions on what they do is primarily state law and, under Sen. McCain's plan, those rules would be stripped away and you would start seeing a lot more insurance companies cherry-picking and excluding people from coverage.
That, I think, is a mistake and I think that this is a fundamental difference in our campaign and how we would approach health care.
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Obama made sure that John McCain understood where he stood on small business and health care for people like Joe Wurzelbacher. Poll results from CBS had Barack Obama as the winner at 53% and McCain at 22%. The poll results from CNN had Obama win at 58% to McCain's 31%. Last, but not least, FOX had Obama expressed his views most clearly was 66% for Obama and 25% for McCain. Though polls say Obama won the debate, how will Joe the Plumber vote?
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