Where’s Dave?

In 1993, there was a nice, easy comedy called “Dave”, a story of presidential impersonation. Essentially, the president (Kevin Kline) has a stroke and the president’s senior aides (Frank Langella, Kevin Dunn), who don’t like the vice president (Ben Kingsley), circumvent the 25th Amendment by hiring someone (again, Kevin Kline) to impersonate the president, while hoping the first lady (Sigourney Weaver) or the president’s Secret Service detail (Ving Rhames) don’t notice.

Got that?

The point here is that there is one scene in the movie where the president convenes a live cabinet meeting in the presence of the media to discuss appropriations for a project that would cost millions dollars to fund, while not cutting any discretionary expenses to pay for it. That sounds fairly familiar.

So the president goes around the table, asking each cabinet secretary why we continue to pay vendors, contractors, etc, while not getting equal value for monies already paid. Finally, everyone finds monies in their departments that can be withheld to fund the project, which happens to be a passion of the first lady’s.

Unfortunately, while there is an excellent lesson to be made with this story and the take away is about common sense, in some cases, those to whom the lesson is addressed are not bright enough to understand the message. This is not a rant against one person or party against another; instead, it is a rant against all our politicians.

Too bad art and life do not always imitate each other when it comes to budget issues. There needs to be a sense of moderation in the upcoming battle to pass a budget and raise the debt ceiling. Compromise by both the President and the Democrats with the Speaker and the Republicans is essential if the people’s business is to be done properly.

Otherwise, continued gridlock and fiscal  irresponsibility will prevail, and the goals of all will be destroyed in the process. For the sake of a political edge.

Then, all the players in this drama will be at fault. And no one will be laughing.