Google confirms that this joke has been circulating for a while, but I just recently discovered it under a blog post headlined “Redneck Economics 101.” It paints the government as a bunch of bureaucrats who have auctioned a rotting horse corpse to American taxpayers. Sounds about right to me.

Young Chuck in Montana bought a horse from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the horse the next day. The next day the farmer drove up and said, “Sorry son, but I have some bad news… the horse died.”

Chuck replied, “Well, then just give me my money back.” The farmer said, “Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.” Chuck said, “Ok, then, just bring me the dead horse.”

The farmer asked, “What ya gonna do with him?” Chuck said, “I’m going to raffle him off.” The farmer said, “You can’t raffle off a dead horse!” Chuck said, “Sure I can, watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.”

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, “What happened with that dead horse?” Chuck said, “I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998.”

The farmer said, “Didn’t anyone complain?” Chuck said, “Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.:

Chuck grew up and now works for the government. He’s the one who figured out how this “bail-out” is going to work.