‘B1DNSUX’ license plate owner: Why I got it

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) – An Ohio man with four children to feed, and who has seen his rent and food bills increase, decided to get a B1DNSUX license plate to share his thoughts with fellow drivers.

Joseph Haig, of Pickaway County, owns a painting business. Like many small business owners, he’s been hurt by increased costs.

“I got the license plate because I didn’t like the gas prices, I didn’t like that my rent had gone up, I didn’t like that the food and formula and diapers for my baby had gone up and was becoming harder to find, and I blamed the current administration,” he said.

Haig applied for the plate eight months ago.

“I did think it was funny,” Haig said. “I also didn’t think it would get approved. It was kind of like a joke to the teller that was doing the paperwork. And she said, ‘Spell it out.’ So I wrote it on a piece of paper, and she laughed, and she gave me a paper copy.

“For three weeks I didn’t think the hard copy was ever going to come — and then,” Haig said with a grin, “it came.”

Most people like the license plate, Haig said, and it’s a good talking point.

“Very few negative feedbacks compared to the positive feedback,” he said. “It makes my day every time somebody gives me a thumbs up. … I’ve even had somebody get out of a car at a Wendy’s and pound on my window and tell me that he loved it.”

Even though Haig is frustrated with the current administration, he said he followed pandemic rules — “I wore my mask inside people’s houses” — and he’s also pitched in when somebody gets hurt: He pulled a victim of a tubing accident from Alum Creek into his fishing boat in 2020. Haig said the victim died as Haig tried to keep him alive.

Haig is not the only person to have a plate that sounds off about the administration. A BIDN SUX plate was seen in a nearby neighborhood in March.

Although Ohioans have been able to show their frustration with President Joe Biden on license plates, they haven’t been able to disparage Michigan in a similar way. Two references were denied in 2020 related to the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry: “MCHSUX” and “UM SCKS.”

In 2021, the BMV denied 827 vanity plates , including at least 48 plates referencing Biden or making a similar comment, according to an analysis of an internal list received via public records request.

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