Actually, numbers aren’t that hard to understand. But sometimes they’re hard to admit to.

The Senate Budget Committee heard from the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Sylvia Burwell – President Obama’s budget chief. It was Ms. Burwell’s job to defend a bad budget offered in bad faith.

I asked Ms. Burwell about whether the administration is offering any reforms to control the soaring costs of entitlements (not really) and whether the administration will be honest with the American people about the value of the Social Security trust fund (no).

But you really should see the effort that Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama had to put into finding out whether President Obama’s budget blows away the spending limits the president himself agreed to just 10 weeks ago. It does: The president wants to spend $56 billion more next year than the compromise Republicans and Democrats reached in the Ryan-Murray budget deal.

Sen. Sessions’ question is simple: Does the president’s budget cost $56 billion more than the deal the president signed in December? The hard part is getting a straight answer out of the president’s budget chief:

The answer is yes. When Ms. Burwell says, “We proposed a $56 billion paid-for initiative,” she means the president won’t live by the deal he signed but will spend $56 billion more and will punish some disfavored American taxpayers with higher taxes to cover it.

She just has a very hard time saying it.