Every year, the White House is required by law to submit the president’s budget plan to Congress by the first Monday in February. While it is common for administrations to miss the date in their first year, the Obama administration has only managed to meet that simple, regular deadline once — a record for which The Most Transparent Administration, Evah evidently has no plans for improvement.

Last week, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan queried the White House on whether they had any intention of getting him a budget proposal in a timely fashion: “Given the critical importance of addressing our nation’s fiscal problems, I am writing to ask whether the President will submit his budget request this year on or before February 4 as required by law… If the Administration does not plan to meet the statutory deadline, when do you anticipate the request being made?” Womp, womp:

Acting Budget Director Jeff Zients told Ryan (R-Wis.) late Friday that the budget will not be delivered by Feb. 4, as required by law, a House aide said.

“Late Friday evening, Deputy Director Zients confirmed that for the fourth time in five years, the President’s budget will not be submitted in compliance with the law,” the aide said.

“Zients did not indicate how late the administration will delay its submission, simply noting ‘We will submit it to Congress as soon as possible,’” the aide said. …

Ryan’s office says that Obama has missed the budget deadline by more than any president since the 1920s.  Obama’s first budget was delayed until May, while his second budget was delivered on time. The last two budgets were late but came in February.

Meh — who really cares anyway, right? President Obama’s budget was unanimously rejected last year, and the Senate hasn’t actually bothered to pass one of those pesky ol’ budget resolutions since, oh… 2009, I believe? I’m sure taking the time to craft a lawful budget would be mildly inconvenient in highlighting all of that trillion-dollar deficit spending we’ve been doing, which is apparently the fault of Congress and Congress alone, anyways.

The term “fundamentally unserious” springs to mind.