SOUNDING OFF:

The election is over. And Joe the Plumber will fade into obscurity.

Obscurity is where people like Steve the Writer have been comfortable for years.

Twenty-three years ago, Steve met the girl of his dreams. Eighteen months later, they were wed.

A year later, the couple bought a two-bedroom condominium in Costa Mesa, scraping together every cent they could to make the down payment.

Three years later, they had the first of their two children, a girl. The second, a boy, came two-and-a-half years later.

After 15 years in the condo, they moved. The move was made easier because Steve and his wife never refinanced and took any money out of their condo. Plus, they paid a little extra on their mortgage each month.

With the large equity in their condo, they were able to put down 40% on a much nicer place and still had money for landscaping and new furniture. Their mortgage payment was low.

While they worked, they put aside money in their 401(k)s, just as the experts were advising them to do. Over time, thanks to gains in the stock market, they built up a nice sum.

Over the past 20 years, they have never missed a mortgage payment and were a little bit late only a couple of times, for no other reason than they just forgot.

They avoided credit card debt by faithfully paying off the balance in full each month, just as the experts said to do.

They started a policy of paying cash for everything. They saved money for vacations, and then traveled.

During the years that his kids were active in sports, Steve coached them in baseball, soccer and softball. Steve and his wife rarely missed a practice or a game.

Steve and his wife also rarely missed a school event such as a play or an awards ceremony.

Despite a few traffic citations, Steve the Writer, obeyed the law, refusing even to cheat while driving by crossing over the double yellow line into or out of the carpool lane.

Once, when his kids were 10 and 12 years old and with him in the car, he scraped an unoccupied vehicle with the side mirror on his own car. No one was around.

Wanting to set an example for his children, Steve the Writer left a note on the other car with his name, phone number and an apology.

Steve and his wife are proud of the fact that they have never taken a cent of government assistance.

Over the years, Steve the Writer and his wife witnessed all sorts of corporate shenanigans, from the savings and loan crisis to the tabloid stories about Enron and WorldCom executives living the high life.

Steve later saw some of the executives led away in handcuffs.

In January 2008, Steve and his wife converted all of their stock holdings to safe but low-yield money market accounts. If the corporate scandals of the prior years taught them anything, it was that it was important to stay ahead of the curve. They weren’t making much on their money, but they weren’t losing anything either.

Today, Steve drives a 5-year-old car. His wife’s car is 8 years old. Both run well because they get regular maintenance, just as the experts say they should.

But now, Steve the Writer is mad.

For the past 23 years, Steve and his wife played by the rules. They did everything in the right order, they saved and invested and rarely complained, not even this year when they were notified that their paltry $174 federal income tax refund would be applied directly to their quarterly tax payment account.

“It’s ironic,” Steve said. “We gave AIG taxpayer funds — my little refund is in there. But had the IRS sent me the money, it would have gone to AIG anyway to pay for the life insurance policy I have with them.”

It’s not just the refund that’s making Steve’s blood boil, it’s the feeling he has that Americans have been taken for another ride by the experts he has been listening to for so many years; that the $700 billion he and his fellow citizens are forking over is nothing more than a gift to well-connected people and businesses on Wall Street and that it will do little to help the economy.

Steve the Writer is beginning to think he’s Steve the Sucker.

“If I’d failed to make my mortgage payments, I’d soon be receiving help from the government. Instead, I’m footing the bill for the banks and others who made the bad mortgages, and the unqualified people who got them.”

“All I’m getting is another invoice for my share. Except that this time, my kids are going to have to pay for it, too.”

If it’s business as usual in Washington, we won’t hear about Joe the Plumber, Steve the Writer or Susan the Bus Driver for another four years.

“I’m not holding my breath waiting for the change that was promised,” Steve says, “I’d settle for some honesty. But come to think of it, that would be a change, wouldn’t it?”

STEVE SMITH writes the Daily Pilot’s weekly “Kids These Days” column.