Did You Elect Him?

     I'm sure it wasn't me.  Try as I might, I have no recollection of Elon Musk being on my ballot this past November, so he must have been on yours.  I can't figure out what the office might be -- Grand Vizier?  Privy Councillor? -- and I wonder if the alternative choice might not have been better than the relentless self-promoter and all-around weirdo, for all that he's done a great job making space travel less expensive, electric cars zoomier and electric trucks, well, you can't win 'em all.

     Nobody elected him to run the Federal budget, not even at the Go/No-Go level.  That's up to the House to start, the Senate to finish and the President to Yea or Nay, period.  They screw up the process routinely all by themselves, which is why they have been scrambling around, trying to pass a continuing resolution to keep the bills paid and the paychecks coming before the 2024 clock runs out and the incoming Congress has to do business in the dark without even free coffee.  They didn't need any outside help in making a mess of it.

     I am not a big fan of Donald Trump, but he did, in fact, win the election, and after January 20, 2025, he and his Cabinet (and whoever else gets invited in to kibitz) will have their own chance to make their own mess.  Until then, they can wait their turn.  But remember: money stuff starts in the House, finishes in the Senate and then the President (who can indeed ask for advice) lets it stand or vetoes it.  That's the rule and they wrote it down in ink, right there in the U. S. Constitution, long, long ago.