OK, let’s stipulate for purposes of discussion that President Obama really means it when he says the present course of federal spending “cannot be sustained” and that he wants to get rid of that $1.3 trillion annual federal deficit.

Even if Obama follows up his proposed three-year partial federal spending freeze — defense, homeland security and entitlements are exempted — with additional concrete steps to cut out the waste and duplication in the bureaucracy, does anybody truly believe this Congress will go along?