The adminsitration is ignoring federal budget data reporting requirements in order to help Bush's re-selection. I lost count of the number of times this has happened during the last three plus years. It hardly seems worth mentioning anymore, but I figured there were too few posts on this blog.
The White House will miss a July 15 deadline to release a new budget report expected to show improvement in the deficit ahead of next month's Republican political convention, officials said on Friday.
Administration officials denied the delay was politically motivated to give the White House budget office more time to incorporate better-than-expected tax revenue figures into their forecasts. They said they would release the new budget projections as soon as they are completed.
Release of the report could provide Bush with a political boost at the Republican convention, which opens Aug. 30, by allowing him to cite progress reining in record budget deficits.
This could bite Bush in the butt if the economy does not improve. The Leading Index of Consumer Spending (consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of our economy) fell to 5.30 percent in May from 5.84 in April, something you won't hear him mention on the campaign trail.