WASHINGTON — Oops! President Obama did it again.
The president yesterday missed the deadline to submit a budget — the fourth time in five years that he’s failed to produce a financial plan on time.
The White House insisted that the budget was late this year because Obama and Congress took until Jan. 2 to finish the tax-hike deal that averted the fiscal cliff, which they said delayed budget writing.
Law requires the president to submit an annual budget by the first Monday in February. Obama succeeded only in 2010.
House Speaker John Boehner’s office noted that other presidents got the budget done under more difficult circumstances, including President Franklin Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor and President George W. Bush after 9/11.
“It’s long past time for the president to do his job,” said Boehner (R-Ohio), adding that the House will again meet its budget deadline in April.
White House spokesman Jay Carney fired back that House Republicans pass only “highly partisan” budgets that have “no support among the American people.”
He claimed Obama “has a proposal” to reduce deficits, but he didn’t say whether Obama would release a budget before or after the State of the Union Address next week.
The house GOP has sustained pressure on Obama and the Democratic-run Senate to produce budgets and tackle the growing $16.5 trillion federal debt.
The Senate hasn’t offered a budget in four years.
The House is set this week to vote on a GOP bill that would require the president to produce a plan to balance the budget.
The Senate this year must pass a budget or else senators will lose their pay, under a House GOP measure put into law.
“Every time the president and Senate Democrats shirk their duty, they delay choices we need to make,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).