NCAA vs. the budget: President Obama's 'Mad' priorities

NCAA vs. the budget: Obama's 'Mad' priorities

President Obama made sure he filled out his bracket for the NCAA for the Final Four on time. But the 2014 budget remains late

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," March 20, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Tonight: Presidential priorities, basketball or budget?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I bet you he spends more time filling out his March madness brackets than he does writing a budget.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let's see what we can do.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, it'd be nice to see his budget on February the 4th, when it was do.

OBAMA: I think we can do better.

BOEHNER: It'd be nice to see it on March the 4th, when it would only be a month late.

OBAMA: This is a tough one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're still waiting on a budget from the president, though I suspect we'll see a March madness bracket from him before we see a budget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Syracuse.

OBAMA: Good match, but I like Syracuse, mainly because Biden told me if I didn't pick them, he wouldn't talk to me.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president will be putting forward a budget in the next several weeks, probably the week of April 8th.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATE MINORITY LEADER: It is beyond tardy.

OBAMA: Somebody's going to come through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president's got more time to go and do his Final Four picks, and yet still hasn't even made the deadline, 45 days late, to submit his budget.

OBAMA: I'm going back to the Big 10. I think this is Indiana's year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president being late on his budget is kind of like issuing your Final Four picks about April.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: So here's a question for you. How does President Obama manage to get his basketball brackets done on time every year, but constantly miss the budget deadline that's set by law?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Senator Lindsey Graham is on the Senate Budget Committee. He joins us. Nice to see you, sir.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Well, I think his basketball picks are good news stories. His budget's a lousy news story for him, so he's trying to do a good news story.

VAN SUSTEREN: But why not -- I mean, if he can find the time to do the brackets on the basketball...

GRAHAM: Well, you know, it's good PR to, you know, show, I'm a real human being. But do you realize that he has never received one vote for any of his previous budgets? If he can pick one winner right in the brackets, he's trumped what he's been able to do on getting votes for his own budget.

So why is he doing this? It's a good soft news story. His budget's going to be met with absolutely no support from Democrats or Republicans.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, he said things had come up and that's why he missed the February 4th deadline...

(LAUGHTER)

VAN SUSTEREN: ... and then missed the March deadline. But those things that sort of come up, they've also come up for the House and the Senate. And both the House and the Senate managed to have a budget!

GRAHAM: Let me say again the President of the United States has never seen one vote in the entire Congress for his budget. If I were president, I'd go to my guys and say, Why can't we get one vote? That shows you how serious he's taking fixing the country's problems from a budget point of view. How disappointed would you be if you produced a budget and you couldn't get one person to vote for it?

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, let me go to the White House tours. Senator Coburn attached an amendment about the White House tours. What happened to that?

GRAHAM: I...

VAN SUSTEREN: He -- he wanted to restore them or bring them back.

GRAHAM: It's going to going to go (INAUDIBLE) file 13. Clearly, they're trying to exaggerate the effect of sequestration, but on the military, it's real. You know, there are some games being played to try to make this harder than it really is, but from a military point of view, this is devastating.

(END VIDEOTAPE)