Ryan hits Obama for blowing past deadline for 2014 budget

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Monday criticized President Obama for missing the Feb. 4 deadline for producing a budget.

“I’m disappointed the president has missed his deadline. But I’m not surprised,” the House Budget Committee Chairman said in a statement. “In four of the last five years, he’s failed to submit his budget on time.”

Ryan said Congress still has not been informed of when a 2014 budget will be coming. Congressional aides predict the budget won’t be submitted until early March.

“We still don’t know when we’ll receive the president’s request. And for nearly four years, Senate Democrats haven’t passed a budget at all. We deserve better,” Ryan said.

The White House informed Ryan in January that the last-minute deal on the “fiscal cliff” — a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that was partially avoided in a New Year’s Day deal — had delayed the federal agency budgeting process.

“For the fourth time in five years this White House has proven it does not take trillion-dollar deficits seriously enough to submit a budget on time,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement.

“In contrast, Republicans will meet our obligations and pass another budget in the coming weeks that addresses our spending problem, promotes robust job creation, and expands opportunity for all Americans.”

{mosads}The House and Senate last month passed a bill to withhold lawmaker pay in each chamber if that chamber fails to produce a budget by April 15. The idea behind the GOP legislation is to force a budget negotiation over long-term priorities before the debt ceiling needs to be raised again sometime after May 19.

As part of a deal with House conservatives, Ryan last month agreed to write a budget this year that balances within 10 years — about 15 years faster than his last budget. Doing that without tax increases will require trillions of dollars more in spending cuts over the next decade.

Ryan is also likely to continue advocating partially privatizing Medicare for future seniors.

Senate Democrats have pledged to create a budget this year that limits spending cuts while raising taxes.

The contrast makes any prospect of reconciling the House and Senate budgets for 2014 dim.

—This story was updated at 12:03 p.m.