President Obama spent much of last year pretending that he had a plan to tackle the nation’s long-term debt crisis. He never released an actual plan, but he gave a bunch of speeches pretending that he had. And Obama pushed the idea that he was privately ready to cut a “grand bargain” on the debt were he not thwarted by intransigent Republicans. This was a narrative dutifully reported by the media, despite the lack of any formal plan. Now, the pretending is over.

On Monday, Obama unveiled a budget that added to the debt while using a series of budget gimmicks to claim deficit reduction. And today, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner conceded that the administration didn’t even attempt to do anything about the nation’s long-term debt problem.