So with respect to raising the debt ceiling and cutting spending we have several speeches and a news conference or two from the president, we have the so-called “Gang of Six” proposal from the Senate and we have House Speaker John Boehner’s plan. All call for spending cuts in some multiple of a trillion dollars.

So let me ask you something, where are the cuts? I mean really, what specifically is being cut? Aside from this or that number that is being bandied about, what money that is being spent today will not be spent tomorrow if one of these proposals is adopted? How many federal employees will be laid off? Which departments of the government will be consolidated? Which federal programs will be discontinued? Which subsidies will end?

All of the proposals you’re hearing about project savings over ten years with most of the savings in the “out years,” which is Washington-speak for “never.” Call up MasterCard and ask for a credit limit increase and tell them the money to pay them back will be coming in the “out years” and let me know how you do.

Until you hear shrieking government employees and outraged constituents of federal subsidies and breathless reporting of hardships resulting from the closing of this or that federal agency, know that any talk of spending cuts is just that; talk.

The country’s financial situation is serious. But the proposals for dealing with that problem still are not.