Now that Joe the Plumber didn’t work out so good, McCain seems to be searching around for other “small” business owners. But this is ridiculous.
First, at a rally in Sarasota, Florida, J. Robert Long was introduced as a “small businessman” and was dubbed “Bob the Boat Builder” by McCain. But most of Long’s career was spent at Wellcraft Marine — they reported revenues of $67 million last year.
But things really got silly when Senator Lindsey Graham described McCain’s wife Cindy as “a great small businesswoman.” Cindy inherited the already successful and third largest Anheuser-Busch distributorship in the country from her dad, which had revenues of nearly $200 million last year.
No wonder McCain thinks Obama is going to raise taxes on small businesses. While Obama’s plan will not raise taxes on businesses making less than $250,000 (which includes 95% of small businesses), the man with more houses than he can remember seems to have a larger view of small.
UPDATE: J Robert Long (“Bob the Boat Builder”) responded to this post. For the sake of fairness, see his letter in the comments.
One Comment
Hello, I am J. Robert Long. I am the one who introduced John McCain at the Sarasota Rally as Bob the Boat Builder. I read that someone thought that John McCain was deceiving you in having me, as a small businessman, introduce him
Just to clear the air. It is true that I spent years from 1975 to 1993 at Wellcraft Marine in Sarasota Florida as President. It is also true that iwas a bigger Company.
However it is also true that he impact of the Luxury Tax in the early 90’s was a major factor in me losing my job and being let go.
It is also true that my wife and I with six kids mortgaged a duplex and bought Marine Concepts for $30,000.00. a small business —that was broke. It is also true that we struggled for years and almost ran out of money several times. It is also true that we slowly built the business with the profits form the Company and it took until recently to build up to 130 people and have a successful happy company paying our employees well , providing health care, 401K, fringes, Vacation and Holidays. AS a sub chapter S corporation the profits flow through to me personally and I keep most of them in the Company to grow , expand, put away for rainy day but I do pay taxes on them as if it was personal income. This is what would be taxed if they go over $250,000. I believe that the McCain Campaign checked me out pretty thoroughly before they asked me to introduce Senator McCain and it is unfortunate that someone does not have all of the facts.
The following is the quote from your site: https://www.politicalirony.com/2008/10/27/this-is-mccains-idea-of-small-businesses/
“Now that Joe the Plumber didn’t work out so good, McCain seems to be searching around for other “small” business owners. But this is ridiculous.
First, at a rally in Sarasota, Florida, J. Robert Long was introduced as a “small businessman” and was dubbed “Bob the Boat Builder” by McCain. But most of Long’s career was spent at Wellcraft Marine — they reported revenues of $67 million last year.”
I was let go from Wellcraft over 15 yeas ago,
Sincerely,
Bob Long