There's a scene in the early 90s movie Dave that kind of captures the moment leaders in Congress and the White House face right now with a budget deadline closing in.

In the movie, Kevin Klein plays a presidential impersonator, Dave, who's drafted by one of the president's aides, played by Kevin Dunn.

The White House wants Dave to play the president while the real president is in a coma.

Sometimes we need our friends and even our enemies to feel safe and secure.

We need them to feel like they can go to bed at night knowing that President Mitchell is fully in control. We need them to feel like he's

sitting right here in this chair.

As the fake president becomes more confident in his part,

he calls his friend, Accountant Murray Blum,

played by Charles Groden, to help him try to save a social safety net program.

All right, I can't tell you the whole story.

It's kind of a national emergency kind of thing,

but you gotta help me cut the budget a little.

You gotta cut the budget.

Now obviously a three decade old comedic take on the U.S. presidency is not an exact

metaphor for the paralysis American politicians are experiencing today, but Accountant

Murray Blum does have an apt observation that can be applied to the

here and now.

I'll tell you Dave, I've been over this stuff a bunch of times, it just doesn't add up.

Who does these books?

I mean, if I ran my business this this way I'd be out of business.

If I ran my business this way I'd be out of business.

That line delivered by a dead pan Charles Groden feels very relevant.

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