Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag (as opposed to Pari Sabety, director of Ohio’s Office of Budget and Management) appeared as a guest on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week. Orzag’s appearance comes between “certified cool” guests – actors Seth Rogan and Michael J. Fox (who is on tonight).

During the 10-minute segment, Orszag explained the difficulties of budget forecasting, the importance of addressing health care costs, and projected federal deficits. The interview highlighted some really important issues, and also made light of some of the extremely difficult challenges facing our country. What I found really funny (or sad) is the fact that Jon Stewart’s solution to reducing the deficit - ripping out the Department of Commerce - would only just begin to scratch the surface of the problem. The Commerce budget for 2010 is $13.8 billion total (which includes a huge $4 billion increase to conduct the census). The federal deficit for 2009 is expected to top $1.2 trillion.

If only the rest of us could make budgeting as interesting as the Daily Show...