About Carts and Horses

Our forefathers learned a long time ago it really works better if we have the horse out in front of the cart.  Horses appear to be a lot better at pulling things than pushing them.

It is apparent from their actions, todays legislators have forgotten that concept.  We spend so much time talking about the cart and what it will do for us; we forget we need a horse.  Lets take health care for example.  I am not advocating for or against the principles of universal health care, government funded health care, private health care or all the options on the table.  But as part of that discussion what we didn’t get from the sponsors and other advocates was any real approach to making it sustainable for the future.  They sold us a very nice cart, but not the horse to pull it.  So here we sit in our cart, as the courts and the politicians continue to argue about who is going to push us along.

Both the Democrats and Republicans are guilty of this foolishness.  For the Republicans their cart of choice is tax cuts.  Everything they want to do is based on tax cuts.  Nowhere do they bring up what the horse is that will make that a sustainable long-term approach.  Ronald Reagan proposed massive tax cuts as a way to pull us from the rampant unemployment and inflation of the Carter years.  It worked, but we forget he also advocated for smaller government.  So with Reagan we got the tax cut cart, but not the smaller government horse that would make it sustainable.  That is why our debt is now blowing through the roof and every couple of years Congress has to authorize a new ceiling.

Maybe we should erect a statue in front of the Capital that shows their approach?