And only two months late, plus conveniently after the Senate Democrats and House Republicans both released their own budgets.

President Obama will release his fiscal 2014 budget on April 10, more than two months after it was due, White House principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday.

Republicans have lampooned Obama for failing to turn in his budget on time this year. The White House has said it has been delayed because of the great uncertainty about federal finances this year – including the “fiscal cliff” debate at the start of the year and the lack of clarity surrounding the deep spending cuts known as sequestration that took effect March 1.

Yes, I’m sure any number of presidents could have found similar “but we had to do this crucial thing first”-type excuses — we are talking about the president of the United States of America, after all, and they certainly have no shortage of important things to do — but barring first-timers still installing their administrations, almost every other president has managed to get their budget in on time or early each year since at least Coolidge (President Obama holds the record for both the longest delay and the most delays).

The president’s budget is supposed to be the first out of the gate as a starting point for Congress to work off of — but fortunately, Congress has already started duking it out over the particulars without him. Calling this anything other than a scrubbed leadership opportunity just isn’t quite honest. Although, to be fair, I can’t say I’m really holding out hope that his actual budget is going to represent any kind of real attempt at leadership either, so, wash.