All of us concerned with government spending can now take a deep breath and relax. The president has boldly advanced his campaign pledge to trim waste and improve efficiency throughout the federal bureaucracy.

On Monday, he tasked his Cabinet officers to make proposals within 90 days to slash their budgets by a cumulative total of $100 million.

Wow! Think of it! That is enough to buy three-quarters of a first-class stamp for every man, woman and child in the country. Not enough for a pack of gum, but maybe a pencil.

And here are just a few of the great early concepts being floated: The Department of Homeland Security will save $52 million by buying office supplies in bulk. The Department of Agriculture will save $62 million by consolidating 1,500 employees into one office in two years. The Department of Veterans Affairs will cancel or delay 26 conferences to save nearly $18 million. All that, and the 90 days have barely begun.

Who knows what other great ideas may yet percolate? Oops. Wait a minute. We're already there. That's a total of $132 million. Heck, go ahead and have those conferences; buy your office supplies any old way you want, you've done it. Who knew governing could be so easy?

Meanwhile, Congress has returned from a richly deserved and unfortunately ended recess to tackle a proposed $3.67 trillion budget. I am, as usual in federal fiscal matters, somewhat stymied by a calculator with only eight digits, but I think that draconian $100 million in savings amounts to .0000272 percent of the proposed budget.

Surely the media have misplaced a decimal point somewhere. Surely the president intends to save $100 million a day. That would amount to $36.5 billion a year. That is almost the exact amount needed to fund the Department of Energy's Title VII Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program, or, in more prosaic terms, enough to buy all 300 million of us about 30 Big Macs apiece. You can have mine.

Here's an even better idea: If we could save $100 million an hour, it would amount to $876 billion annually. We could get most of the way there simply by closing the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Small Business Administration. That should be an easy sell.

I would think the president would be embarrassed even to mention the amount of $100 million in the same breath with governmental efficiency. It can only be viewed as a sop to those who took his campaign promises seriously, a bad joke, or a confirmation of the recent TEA party view that this is a government out of control -- on purpose.

It has been reported that this gesture is actually symbolic; that it is intended to bring congressional Republicans into budget negotiations in reciprocation. Surely, even Republicans cannot be that stupid. There is going to be no negotiation on this budget. Co-President Pelosi will deliver whatever Mr. Obama wants, and likely a good deal more. Making a show out of saving chump change only makes actual expenditures look larger. It's like buying a Rolls Royce and leaving out a cup holder.

That the president apparently takes this idea seriously, as he apparently takes everything seriously, is an insult to the intelligence of every American. It represents arrogance in the extreme to attempt to parlay this pittance into anything remotely meaningful.

Since the present administration is already planning trillion-dollar deficits to revive the economy, and beyond, I say let the convention planners and pencil-pushers make a buck. They're going to need it.

Yes, the government is bloated, and yes, it would be wonderful to go through the budget line by line, as Mr. Obama promised before he was elected, but there are only three lines that can seriously alter our path toward fiscal catastrophe: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Where is the bold action on those?

Fred Wolferman lives in Southern Pines. Contact him by e-mail at fwolferman@sbcglobal.net.