This isn’t surprising -- after all, we did see this coming -- but now we know with certainty: he’ll miss the deadline (again) by exactly one month.
For those keeping score, this will be the fifth time he’s submitted a budget proposal late in six years:
The budget, officially due on the first Monday in February, will come out on March 4, the White House said Thursday.
An official said work on the proposal was delayed by the two-year budget deal that Congress passed in December and the omnibus spending bill that was passed this month.
“The President’s 2015 Budget will be released on March 4. Now that Congress has finished its work on this year’s appropriations, the Administration is able to finalize next year’s Budget. We are moving to complete the Budget as quickly as possible to help Congress return to regular order in the annual budget process," budget office spokesman Steve Posner said in a statement.
Last year, Obama delivered his budget on April 8, more than two months late and after the House and Senate had passed their own blueprints. The administration blamed that delay on the early January resolution of the "fiscal cliff" fight.
Call me cynical, but I suspect if the delay wasn’t caused by the late budget deal or whatever, the administration would serve up a different excuse. Nevertheless, here’s Rep. Diane Black teeing off on the president:
Budget committee member Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), who helped negotiate the December budget pact as a conference committee member, blasted Obama for the delay.
"This is another sad reminder of just how unserious this president is about tackling our nation’s fiscal challenges, and I hope this does not signal a return to years past where Senate Democrats fail to pass a budget plan at all," she said.
Let’s hope not. The Democratic-controlled Senate didn’t pass a budget for four years, and when they did, it was littered with tax increases and never balanced. But hey, at least they passed one. Meanwhile, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has made it clear he will unveil his own blueprint soon. But will Senate Democrats do their jobs? We shall see:
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said he will produce a budget blueprint this year, but it remains unclear whether the Senate will unveil its own budget resolution. Last year, the Senate passed a budget for the first time in four years after Congress imposed a "no budget, no pay" law. That law is no longer in effect this year.
Perhaps, then, we should bring the law back? It’s one of the few, as Speaker Boehner might say, that gets Senate Dems “off their ass.”