White House to release its first on-time budget proposal since 2010

President Obama will roll out his 2016 budget on Feb. 2, the earliest release for the White House’s fiscal framework in five years. 

{mosads}A spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget said the Obama administration hoped the on-time release of the president’s proposal would restore some discipline to a budget process that has broken down on both Capitol Hill and the White House in recent years.

“We look forward to working with Congress on returning to regular order in the annual budget process,” the spokeswoman said. 

The president is supposed to send a budget to Congress on the first Monday of February. But Obama has only met that deadline once, in 2010, and has been as much as two months late. 

The federal deficit has declined in recent years, but Obama’s budget will still be an early marker in the showdown between the White House and congressional Republicans over taxes and spending. 

Republicans have routinely rejected to Obama’s past budget frameworks, saying they were too full of tax increases and didn’t do enough to restrain entitlement spending, though Obama did propose paring back benefits for Social Security recipients in 2013.

The House has routinely passed budgets in recent years, but Senate Democrats only passed one budget in their last five years in charge. 

Republicans, now in full control on Capitol Hill, have said they also want to return to regular order on the budget and appropriations process – a move which allows them to try and force Obama’s hands on a range of policies where they oppose the president.