Drafted As A Pastry Chef. . .

(Drafted As A Pastry Chef. . .)

There was an episode of M*A*S*H called "The Lidocaine Mutiny." Basically, with an active day in the O.R. the staff, surgeons included, were overwhelmed. The one in "charge" was Major Frank Burns and if anyone is familiar with the show, Burns was the empty gown. In any event, Hawkeye Pierce had to take charge and dosed Burns with lidocaine. Burns brought charges if mutiny but in the hearing, Pierce was exonerated, When Burns queried of his own medical qualifications, he was told that, had he not been drafted as a surgeon, he would have as a pastry chef.

The same can be said for Joe Biden. Had he not been elected Senator, and then made President, he would have been in a bakery making donuts. So, the pastry has two problems today, raising the debt ceiling and making the border less chaotic. The President is failing on both counts.

The U.S. is set to reach its debt "limit: the first of next month. That is not to say that the government will run out of money. Tax receipts are still being collected at record levels. The House Bill that McCarthy is presenting Biden, as listed, will raise the ceiling $1.7 trillion while at the same time introduce real cuts in federal spending. Some $4.1 trillion over the next ten years and keeping growth of outlays to 1% annually.

Sounds reasonable. So reasonable in fact that the majority of the Senate Republcan Conference is in favor of the House Measure. That even includes Minority Leader McConnell. If Senate Republicans can be joined by the less than lunatic Democrats, the Manchin's and the Sinema's of the world, than the House Bill could actually pass the Chamber. In that case, Biden will have a choice. He could veto the Bill and become the first President in history to allow a default. Or, he could sign it and go down in history as the one who avoided a financial crisis and sign the damn thing.

The debt ceiling bill is not the only thing the President has said he will veto. In the wake of the end of Title 42, the House has under consideration a Bill, to be voted on Thursday, the same day as 42's termination, that would restore border security by statute. The wall would be completed. Return to Mexico would be re-instated. Several more thousand more border patrol agents would also be deployed.

But one probably cannot expect much for who would otherwise be a pastry chef.