So where is Barack Obama in this process? Nowhere, apparently. By law, he was required to produce his budget in February. He missed that deadline; no surprise there, as Obama’s regard for laws of all kinds is slight. The White House said Obama’s budget would be produced in March, but now the date has been pushed back to April. One might think that, with Congressional Democrats finally getting into the budget game after four years, Obama would want to play a role. You might even think he would want to lead. But no: it appears that he has not coordinated even with the members of his own party on the Hill, and his budget, when it finally sees the light of day, will be an irrelevant afterthought.