The Donkeys Have It!

I think our government is working on their own "Mythbusters" episode. It has been said that if you dig a hole deep enough you will reach China. Maybe that is why President Obama met with President Hu Jintao of China: in case it's not a myth, he wanted to make sure he had good reservations for when he gets there.

Congress has spent us into such a large hole that, in twisted government logic, it has been decided that a larger shovel must be needed to get us out.

There is a story of an old donkey that fell into a large hole. Instead of trying to lift it out of the hole the villagers decided to just bury it. So they started bringing all of their trash to the hole and dumping it on top of the donkey. The donkey would shake it off and stamp it down. The villagers would bring more trash and dump it on the donkey. The donkey would shake it off and stamp it down. This kept going on until one day there was enough trash under the donkey that it simply stepped out of the hole.

Note: My wife, as I read this to her, asked me to clarify the above analogy to make sure it was getting across what I intended. So here is the legend:

• The old donkey - that is us (the nation)
• The large hole - the debt (that was easy)
• The villagers - Congress
• The trash - revenue (tax dollars, which is the way the government raises funds to operate)

The villagers didn't give the donkey a shovel and told it to dig its way out, they filled the hole - albeit unintentionally.

You need to stop digging the hole deeper before you try to fill it up. That's the key.

My pastor told a story of a car he had when he was younger. It was such a gas hog that when he went to fill it up the attendant (back in the day when someone else would pump your gas for you, and that person wasn't your spouse) would say, "You gotta shut that thing off; you're getting ahead of me!"

Our nation is really hurting right now. Sometimes you just have to apply a tourniquet before you try to patch the wound. And we've got a real bleeder on our hands!

(Sorry about all of the analogies - must be the result of going through my poetry. . .)

I'm not going to argue in this issue whether or not increasing taxes is the solution to filling the hole (it's not, by the way. Even President Kennedy knew that!), but cutting spending is a must!

Maybe those in Congress can take the advice of the old donkey in the story above - and believe you me, if they follow MY advice they WILL get a lot of trash dumped on them. They need to shake it off and do what's right. The financial future of our country depends on it!

Who said you can't learn anything from a jackass?

© Emittravel 2011