Bodog Beat

Joe the Plumber got some serious air time during last night's presidential debates. (ABC Image)

If you hadn't heard of Joe the Plumber before last night's presidential debate, you were suddenly made aware of the man – over and over again. Joe the Plumber is Joe Wurzelbacher, a Ohio plumber who wants to buy the business where he's worked for years.

The McCain campaign got wind of the fact that Wurzelbacher confronted Obama on his tax increases for businesses who make over $250K. Apparently, Wurzelbacher's plumbing company earned $250 – $280K annually and that under Barack Obama's tax plan, he would face a tax hike – robbing him of his "American Dream."

Obama said that under his proposals, taxes on any revenue below $250,000 would remain the same, but that earnings above that level would be subject to a 39% tax, instead of the current 36% rate. He added that 95% of small businesses earned less than $250,000 and that he wanted to give those small businesses a tax cut.

During the debate, John McCain brought up Joe a dozen times.

"Joe wants to buy the business that he's been in for all these years. Worked 10, 12 hours a day. But he looked at your tax plan and he saw that he was going to pay much higher taxes," Mr McCain said.

"And what you want to do, to Joe the plumber, means more like him have their taxes increased, and not be able to realize the American dream."

Interesting to note: If message board commentor Trina31 is correct, Wurzelbacher already owns several businesses and isn't even registered to vote.