In a July 20 article, the Associated Press stated of the Obama administration's midsession budget review, “The release of the update -- usually scheduled for mid-July -- has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.” The AP article, which was promptly highlighted at the top of the Drudge Report, also quoted a former Bush administration official stating that “this routine report could be a nightmare” and reported that the Obama administration “blame[s] the delay on the fact that this is a transition year between presidencies.” However, in the initial version of the article, the AP did not mention, as The New Republic's Noam Scheiber noted, that “while the update generally comes out in mid-July, that's almost never true of the first year of a presidential administration.” Indeed, as a subsequent version of the AP article noted, George W. Bush released his first-year review on August 22, 2001, and Bill Clinton released the first midsession budget review of his presidency on September 1, 1993.

In response to the original AP article, Scheiber wrote: “In the absence of dispositive evidence, I'm just not sure how you write a piece accusing Obama of playing politics with the timing of this release when it will likely come earlier than it did during the first year of the two previous administrations.”

The AP article soon became fodder for conservative media figures to attack the Obama administration. Sean Hannity asserted during the July 20 edition of his Fox News program that in moving back the release of the budget review, the Obama administration is “purposefully ... hiding these numbers from the American people so they can push their health care agenda.” Hannity claimed the timing of the budget release shows that the Obama administration chose to “basically lie to the American people, not be honest and straight with them.” During the discussion on Hannity, syndicated columnist Betsy Hart asserted: "[T]his is an outrage, and it's a story that really needs to get out, because imagine if the Bush administration had done something like this because they had some agenda. There would be no way that they would be allowed to get away with it." At no point during the discussion, which also included Fox News contributor Doug Schoen and Vanderbilt University law and political science professor Carol Swain, did any panelist note that the Bush administration did not release its first midsession budget review until August 22.

From the initial version of the July 20 AP article:

The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama's budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress.

The release of the update -- usually scheduled for mid-July -- has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.

The administration is pressing for votes before then on its $1 trillion health care initiative, which lawmakers are arguing over how to finance.

The White House budget director, Peter Orszag, said on Sunday that the administration believes the “chances are high” of getting a health care bill by then. But new analyses showing runaway costs are jeopardizing Senate passage.

“Instead of a dream, this routine report could be a nightmare,” Tony Fratto, a former Treasury Department official and White House spokesman under President George W. Bush, said of the delayed budget update. “There are some things that can't be escaped.”

[...]

If a higher deficit and lower growth numbers are not part of the administration's budget update, that will lead to charges that the White House is manipulating its figures to offer too rosy an outlook -- the same criticism leveled at previous administrations.

The midsession review by the White House's Office of Management and Budget will likely reflect weaker numbers. But where is it?

White House officials say it is now expected in mid-August. They blame the delay on the fact that this is a transition year between presidencies and note that Obama didn't release his full budget until early May -- instead of the first week in February, when he put out just an outline.

Still, the update mainly involves plugging in changes in economic indicators, not revising program-by-program details. And indicators such as unemployment and gross domestic product changes have been public knowledge for some time.

From the July 20 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

HANNITY: And we continue now with our “Great American Panel.” All right. So, the White House, literally -- mid-July, usually will readjust the numbers, and they'll take a look and they'll say, “All right, well, we were wrong. The deficit is going to be higher.”

Look, they purposefully, Doug, are hiding these numbers from the American people, so they can push their health care agenda and not let the American people know how wrong they were on the stimulus.

SCHOEN: Well, I think they have to, because, politically, if a huge $1.8 trillion deficit number comes out or worse, they're not going to get health care through. So they're taking the only course they can, which is to delay, hide, and obfuscate.

HANNITY: Hang on a second. Hide, obfuscate, manipulate?

SCHOEN: Right. And delay.

HANNITY: And lie -- basically lie to the American people, not be honest and straight with them -- the most transparent administration.

SCHOEN: Well, lying requires saying something. They're just saying nothing, Sean.

HANNITY: OK, you could lie by omission, you know.

SCHOEN: Well --

HANNITY: There is such a thing.

SWAIN: I would agree. And it's all about the ends. It's about the ends.

HANNITY: Justifies the means.

SWAIN: Yes.

HANNITY: Does that bother you? I mean --

SWAIN: It does bother me quite a bit, because I believe that if we -- that health care should be reformed, and that to reform it in a responsible manner we need more information.

HANNITY: Yeah.

SWAIN: And it should not be rushed through. We should have careful deliberation.

HANNITY: You know, but here's the point I'll ask you, Betsy, is they were so wrong on the stimulus. You know, so wrong on revenue projections, so wrong -- unemployment won't go above 8 percent, now it's 9.5 percent.

HART: Again, they overpromised; they got overzealous. There's just no more money left to spend.

But on this particular issue, this is an outrage, and it's a story that really needs to get out, because imagine if the Bush administration had done something like this because they had some agenda. There would be no way that they would be allowed to get away with it. And I think, so far, he's getting a little bit of a pass on this.

This needs -- there needs to be a lot of pressure put on to get those numbers out, because he's doing it exactly for the reason Doug said. He's trying to get an agenda passed that we know virtually nothing about. Why? Because he doesn't want people to look too closely at it, because then it will fail.