Late last Friday night, the government narrowly averted a shutdown by agreeing to more than $38.5 billion in cuts.

It was hailed by the media as a victory for President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner, the government officials who put compromise and the good of the country over petty partisan squabbles.

Contra the media, this budget compromise was nothing to hail; in fact, it didn’t really accomplish all that much.

Aside from the fact that the government cut spending by less than 3 percent of the annual deficit ”” not the debt, which has climbed to more than $14 trillion, but the $1.6 trillion deficit ”” what the government did cut turned out to be even less than advertised.

According to the Associated Press, $10 billion of the $38.5 billion was already going to be cut, $10 billion from accounts reserved for earmarks, which Republicans already banned, $2.5 billion from highway programs that can’t legally be spent and $5 billion from an obscure bookkeeping rule.

The vast majority of this supposed example of high statesmanship is actually an example of our elected representatives once again pulling the wool over our eyes.

The budget deal will not halt our country’s march over a fiscal cliff ”” it won’t even slow us down.

Any serious conversation about the nation’s debt/deficit crisis has to include more than non-defense discretionary spending ”” it has to include defense cuts, tax reform and Medicare and Social Security reform.

The way the government works must be reformed.

Which leads us to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.).

Last week he unveiled his budget proposal, and it erases the long-term deficit, albeit many years down the road.

He repeals Obamacare; he cuts tax rates but closes tax loopholes; and, in his most dramatic proposal, he reforms Medicare by instead giving subsidies to seniors, who can then purchase private health insurance.

This proposal likely will not pass the Congress. But it gets the conversation started.

Building off of Rep. Ryan’s plan, any budget plan should be four-fold. Social Security can be saved by raising the age; the government can raise revenue by closing loopholes and lowering rates, though not as low as in the Ryan budget; defense spending should be cut by bringing home all troops not in combat; Medicare should be reformed in the way Ryan stipulates.

This is a budget compromise that would actually be an accomplishment.