Mike drives to Obama's new house, which is located in a very exclusive gated community where all the residents make more than $250,000 per year.
Mike arrives and takes his tools into the house. Mike is led to the guest bathroom that contains the leaky pipe under the sink.
Mike assesses the problem and tells Obama that it's an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes.
Obama asks Mike how much it will cost.
Mike checks his rate chart and says, "$9,500.”
"What?! $9,500?" Obama asks, stunned, "But you said it's an easy repair!
Mike says, "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 Mike. "This has always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied the Democrat Congress, who passed this philosophy into law. Now all plumbers must do business this way. It's known as 'Affordable Plumbing Act of 2014.' You should be aware of this since you signed it into law.
In spite of that, Obama tells Mike there's no way he's paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Mike leaves.
Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book calling for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses in the area have gone out of business.
Not wanting to pay Mike's price, Obama does nothing and the leak goes unrepaired for several more days.
A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. Michelle is not happy as she has guests arriving the next morning. 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 Mike and pleads with him to return.
Mike goes back to Obama's house, looks at the leaky pipe, checks his new rate chart and says, “Let's see, this will now cost you $21,000.”
Obama quickly fires back, "What! A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!”
Mike explains, "Well, because of the 'Affordable Plumbing Act,' a lot of wealthier people are learning how to maintain and take care of their own plumbing, so there are fewer payers into the plumbing exchanges. As a result, the price I have to charge wealthy people like you keeps rising. Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work by those who get it for free has skyrocketed! There's a long waiting list of those who need repairs but the amount we get doesn't cover our costs. This unfortunately has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, they're not being replaced, and nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they can't make any money at it. I'm hurting too, all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won't pay their fair share.”
Obama says, "But Mike! This is really bad. Without good plumbers to repair all the inevitable leaks, we will all become wet and miserable, and then we will die!!!”
Mike replies, "but at least we will all be equally wet, miserable, and dead.”
"And, the poor get it for FREE"
