A Parable

Mr. Democrat and Mr. Republican were neighbors who lived an hour away from town by horse and buggy. Mr. Republican owned a horse and buggy. Mr. Democrat, rather than duplicating something Mr. Republican owned, paid Mr. Republican to drive him to town every week to buy supplies.

Mr. Republican's horse was named Economy, and Mr. Democrat noticed that Economy was looking a bit down and sick. As they sat in the buggy and rode towards town, occasionally Economy would halt and pant and lower his head in pain. Mr. Republican would then beat Economy with his stick named Tax Cut until Economy started moving again. Mr. Democrat said, "Economy looks sick. Shouldn't we find out what's wrong with him and get it fixed?" Mr. Republican said "Naw, Economy is just lazy, he just needs more Tax Cut to keep him moving."

One weekend they set out as usual, heading to town, and Economy simply collapsed. As in, dead as a doornail. Mr. Democrat got out of the buggy and verified the horse was dead, and then turned to Mr. Republican and said, "I told you that you should have taken Economy to the vet to find out what was wrong with him!" Mr. Republican shook his head and said, "there's nothing wrong with Economy that more Tax Cut won't fix."

"Uhm, this horse is dead."

"Nonsense! He's just being lazy. All he needs is more Tax Cut!" And with that, Mr. Republican set to beating the corpse of Economy with his stick named Tax Cut. Alas, no matter how much he beat Economy with Tax Cut, Economy never twitched.

As Mr. Democrat walked towards town, he looked back at Mr. Republican, who was still beating the still-deceased Economy with his stick named Tax Cut, and shook his head. Idly he wondered how much it was going to cost him to buy a new Economy to replace the one that Mr. Republican had killed by thinking that Tax Cut was the solution to all of Economy's problems. He would find out shortly, he supposed. He doubted it would be cheap.

-- Badtux the Parable Penguin