WASHINGTON — President Obama is unveiling a $3.99 trillion budget that is "designed to bring middle class economics into the 21st Century," the White House announced Monday.
The proposed budget "invests in helping working families make their paychecks go further, preparing hardworking Americans to earn higher wages, and creating the infrastructure that allows businesses to thrive and create good, high-paying jobs," the White House said in a statement.
To pay for new tax credits and other programs involving education, child care, paid leave, and new road and bridge construction, the budget calls for tax hikes on wealthier Americans by closing certain loopholes.
Congressional Republicans said the president's proposals — many of which leaked out in advance of Monday's announcement — involve too many tax hikes and high-spending programs.
"The president said in his State of the Union that the proposals in his budget would be 'filled with ideas that are practical, not partisan,' " said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "Turns out that's not the case."
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Sunday on NBC's Meet The Press that Obama is trying to "exploit envy economics. ... It may make for good politics. It doesn't make for good economic growth."
Modern presidential budget proposals are as much political documents as accounting ones, often declared "dead on arrival" in Congress by opposing political parties. The result has been a series of budget bills funding the government temporarily.
In a pre-Super Bowl interview Sunday on NBC, Obama said he is hopeful of getting Republican support for many of his proposals. For example, he said both parties agree on infrastructure spending; the dispute is over how to pay for it.
"My job is to present the right ideas," Obama told NBC, and if the Republicans have better ideas "they should present them."
Monday's proposed budget also calls for ending the automatic spending limits known as sequestration, the result of the 2011 stand-off over the debt limit. The plan calls for 7% increases over sequestration limits for national defense and domestic programs, according to the White House.
That includes defense spending of $561 billion, some $38 billion over sequestration levels. Defense priorities include the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, resisting Russian aggression in Ukraine, and a "good governance" project in Central America.
On Sunday, the White House said that the budget will include a six-year, $478 billion program to build and upgrade roads, bridges and other transit systems, to be financed by a one-time 14% tax on overseas profits.
The projected deficit for Obama's proposed budget is $474 billion, which officials said is only 2.5% of the gross domestic product.
In his weekend radio address, Obama said his budget is designed to "help working families' paychecks go farther by treating things like paid leave and child care like the economic priorities that they are. We'll offer Americans of every age the chance to upgrade their skills so they can earn higher wages."
The budget proposes to raise tax revenue by closing loopholes on items involving carried interest, capital gains and trust funds.
Recent years have seen a government shutdown, near-shutdowns and a debt limit crisis, ending with the passage of resolutions that fund the government temporarily, as opposed to a specific budget.
Anyone involved in the process "would acknowledge that this is the beginning of a negotiation," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "But it's important — budgets are important because they're a way that we can codify our values and our priorities."
The proposed budget released Monday also calls for full funding of the Department of Homeland Security for a year. While the current spending plan funds most of the government to the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, it finances homeland security only through February.
The reason: A GOP protest against the president's new immigration actions. The Republicans are trying to pressure Obama into changing actions that would defer deportations for some migrants in the country illegally.
Obama — who has said that the GOP wants to "play politics with our homeland security" — will speak about his proposed budget during a Monday event at the Department of Homeland Security.
Among the economic plans in the proposed budget:
• A child care tax credit of up to $3,000 a child.
• $750 million for a Department of Education preschool development program, an increase of $500 million.
• More than $3 billion for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.
• A $500 tax credit for "second earners" in working families.
• A program encouraging paid leave programs for employees.
• Two years of community college tuition for qualified students, a program that would cost $60 billion over 10 years.
• $1 billion for a "long-term, comprehensive strategy" to develop a Central America "that is fully democratic (and) provides greater economic opportunities."
