On Sunday, at the age of 49, Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as "Joe the Plumber," succumbed to his illness after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Breitbart News reported late Sunday afternoon that Twitter was alive with the news of Wurzelbacher's death.
“Horrible news. My good friend Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, passed away this morning at the age of 49 from pancreatic cancer," announced Townhall columnist Derek Hunter.
He was a good man and an exceptional friend. Please consider helping his widow and young children here,” Hunter went on.
According to the GiveSendGo website that was linked alongside the tragic news, Wurzelbacher was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer in the early months of this year.
The diagnosis was made when Wurzelbacher went to the ER on Christmas Day with severe stomach complaints.
“The treatment has been a little tough so far. He deals with fatigue and weakness daily, which makes it hard for him to go to work," Joe’s wife Katie said at the time.
Since his initial two chemotherapy sessions left him feeling sick to his stomach, his doctor has made some alterations to his treatment plan. He dropped 70 pounds after his cancer treatments began.
Joe and his wife were married in 2011. They are the proud parents of three children.
After questioning then-presidential candidate Barack Obama on his tax policy, Wurzelbacher became known as "Joe the Plumber" in the media during the 2008 election cycle, leading to Wurzelbacher becoming a household name.
“I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes 250 to 280 thousand dollars a year. Your new tax plan’s going to tax me more, isn’t it?” asked Joe.
“If you’re a small business, which you would qualify, first of all, you would get a 50 percent tax credit so you’d get a cut in taxes for your health care costs,” Obama responded.
“So you would actually get a tax cut on that part. If your revenue is above 250, then from 250 down, your taxes are going to stay the same. It is true that, say for 250 up — from 250 to 300 or so, so for that additional amount, you’d go from 36 to 39 percent, which is what it was under Bill Clinton.”
“It’s not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance at success, too,” he continued.
“My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. If you’ve got a plumbing business, you’re gonna be better off […] if you’ve got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you, and right now everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody and I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
