Obama Transparency: Budget Release to be Delayed

We have always known the President's budget was not based in reality, but now that reality has finally caught up to him he and Orszag have decided to delay release as a means to limit the political damage in the face of his collapsing poll numbers. There is no doubt this is about passing health care legislation and it explains his frenetic push to get the bill passed before anyone knows whats in it:

WASHINGTON — The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape.

The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama's budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress.

The release of the update — usually scheduled for mid-July — has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.The administration is pressing for votes before then on its $1 trillion health care initiative, which lawmakers are arguing over how to finance.

The White House budget director, Peter Orszag, said on Sunday that the administration believes the "chances are high" of getting a health care bill by then. But new analyses showing runaway costs are jeopardizing Senate passage.

"Instead of a dream, this routine report could be a nightmare," Tony Fratto, a former Treasury Department official and White House spokesman under President George W. Bush, said of the delayed budget update. "There are some things that can't be escaped."

The president has been disingenuous on this and other issues, now with wapo showing he has lost the trust of the country on health care expect and even greater rush to pass his bills into law. As for Waxmen's folly on energy I would hope the public humiliation of Clinton by India would knock some sense into the president. Of couse Obama's solution to his problems is pretty standard for him, go on TV again and talk away, as if rhetoric can change facts on the ground.