I’ll let you in on a dirty little secret: neither party really cares about the deficit.

Republican Representative (and potential presidential candidate) Mike Pence complains about “runaway federal spending on steroids,” while Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty proclaims, “It’s reasonable that government should tighten its belt.”

“It’s time for government to tighten their belts and show the American people that we get it,” says Speaker-to-be John Boehner.

“Government should have to tighten its belt,” agrees President Obama.

“The federal government needs to tighten its belt,” says one of his advisors, Valerie Jarrett.

“Congress must tighten its belt,” adds Steny Hoyer, the Democrat’s second-in-command in the House.

With the obesity epidemic continuing to grow, you think we’d be looking for ways to make that belt feel a little less tight.

Ba-dum-ch.

Despite all this rhetorical grand standing, neither party as a whole can claim the anti-deficit mantle with a straight face. Of course, there are a couple of individual politicians that truly deserve the title of deficit hawk – Republican George Voinovich of Ohio, for instance.

However, they are scarce, becoming scarcer, and hardly have any influence on Capitol Hill. Voinovich is retiring next year.

For most of the post-war era, the Democratic Party was never about reducing the deficit. The Democrats were the party of big government and high taxes to pay for big government. Republicans, on the other hand, opposed big government and supported low taxes.

The problem for both parties was that Americans hate high taxes but love big government. Since the end of the Cold War, we have seen the two parties converge on this position: big government spending and, at the same time, low taxes.

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama made low taxes favorable on the left; Newt Gingrich and George W. Bush made high government spending popular on the right.

Fiscal insanity, in other words, is now bipartisan.

“But wait!” contend readers who voted for Scott Brown. New Republicans and the Tea Party will stop Obama’s profligacy in the next two years and put America back on track to prosperity.

Let’s take a look at the numbers.

The budget of the federal government during fiscal year 2011 is about $3.7 trillion, which results in a $1.2 trillion deficit. The three biggest areas of the federal budget are defense, Social Security, and public health insurance (Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP).

The Republican “Pledge to America” promises to cut $100 billion of non-military discretionary spending in the party’s first year in power. That means cuts to everything but defense, Social Security, and public health insurance. Subtracting these three biggest areas leaves roughly 17% of the budget left to cut.

$100 billion in cuts to non-defense discretionary spending would result in 21% across-the-board cuts in everything else in the budget: education, research, veterans’ benefits, administration of justice, and more. “Non-defense discretionary spending cuts” won’t be getting us anywhere.

What about earmarks? Even according to the most generous estimate from a right-wing think tank, earmarks make up only $17 billion. Our deficit this fiscal year, you’ll remember, is $1.2 trillion.

But what about Obamacare? Surely we can save money by cutting that big government monstrosity.

Lost in the partisan screaming is the fact that, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, health care reform will actually save us $100 billion over the next decade and $1 trillion over the following decade. Taxes on generous health plans, an independent panel to recommend cost-saving measures, and Medicare reform will save us more money than the Republican plans ever would.

In fact, President Obama may be one of the few people in Washington serious about cutting the national debt. He has proposed a three year freeze on non-defense discretionary spending, signed legislation reforming military acquisitions and proposed an end to the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

This brings us back to the Republicans who claim to oppose the deficit. Making the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, a move the vast majority of Republicans support, is fiscal insanity.

When push comes to shove, new Republican legislators will act like the old Republican legislators, who supported and carried out two wars and a massive expansion of Medicare, but refused to finance them. They refused to raise taxes or cut spending to pay for them, adding to the national debt.

“Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term,” said the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell.

Like I said, no one actually cares about the deficit.

To be fair, congressional Democrats are no better. Members of both parties voted against the creation of a deficit commission. On top of that, Democrats still support making the Bush tax cuts permanent for those who make under $250,000 a year. This, too, is madness and is not remotely sustainable.

Both parties are going to need to come to their senses to restore fiscal sanity. Right now, if current policy does not change, America will default. Growing health care costs will sink us in a few short decades, if not sooner.

There is only one way to prevent this: reform government health care obligations. There is simply no other way to prevent massive debt accumulation and default.

Long term cuts, not short term cuts, are needed now.