Only weeks after leaving office, Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come and fix it.
Joe drives to Obama’s house, which is located in a very exclusive neighborhood where all the residents make more than $250,000 per year. Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the room that contains the leaky pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama, who is standing near the door, that it’s an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes.Obama asks Joe how much it will cost. Joe immediately says, “$9,500.” “$9,500?” Obama asks, stunned, “But you said it’s an easy repair!“Yes, but what I do is charge those who make $250,000 per year a much higher amount so I can fix the plumbing of poorer people for free,” explains Joe. “It’s always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied government who pass this philosophy into law. Now all plumbers do business this way. It’s known as ‘Joe’s Fair Plumbing Act of 2014.’ I’m Surprised you haven’t heard of it.”In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there’s no way he’s paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves. Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book looking for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe’s price, Obama does nothing and the leak goes unrepaired for several days. A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there’s a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return.
Joe goes back to Obama’s house, looks at the leaky pipe, and says, “Let’s see, this will cost you about $21,000.”“What! A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!” Obama quickly fires back. Joe explains, “Well, because of the ‘Joe’s Fair Plumbing Act,’ a lot of rich people are learning how to fix their own plumbing, so there are fewer payers. As a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers keeps rising. “Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work for those who get it for free is skyrocketed. There’s a long waiting list of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, and they’re not being replaced, nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they won’t make any money. I’m hurting too, all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won’t pay their fair share.”“Joe! This could be bad. If all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you can’t charge the poorer people, you’ll be broke.What will you do then?”
Joe immediately replies, “Run for president!”