WASHINGTON -- Declaring an end to "mindless austerity," President Barack Obama called for a surge in government spending Thursday and asked Congress to throw out the sweeping budget cuts both parties agreed to four years ago when deficits were spiraling out of control.
Obama's proposed $74 billion in added spending -- about 7 percent -- would be split about evenly between defense programs and the domestic side of the budget.
Of that, $38 billion would be added above the cap for defense and national security spending, for a total of $561 billion, an official said. Nondefense discretionary spending would be increased by $37 billion over the current limit to $530 billion, according the official, who asked for anonymity to discuss the figures before the budget is officially released Monday.
Although he has sought before to reverse across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, Obama's pitch in this year's budget comes with the added oomph of an improving economy and big recent declines in the federal deficit.
The shortfall in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was $483 billion, or 2.8 percent of gross domestic product, down from a record $1.42 trillion in 2009.
"If Congress rejects my plan and refuses to undo these arbitrary cuts, it will threaten our economy and our military," Obama said in an op-ed article Thursday on the website The Huffington Post. He said the nation's debt still would decline as a share of the overall economy under his plan.
The figures represent Obama's opening offer as he gears up for an inevitable battle with the new Republican-run Congress over spending for fiscal 2016, which starts Oct. 1.
On Thursday evening, Obama vowed not to stand on the sidelines as he laid out his opening offer to Congress during remarks in Philadelphia, where House Democrats were gathered for their annual retreat.
"We need to stand up and go on offensive and not be defensive about what we believe in," Obama said. Speaking about what he called Republican leaders' newfound interest in poverty and the middle class, he questioned whether they would back it up with substance when it mattered.
Republicans, meanwhile, have promised to produce a balanced-budget blueprint this spring even as they worry about Pentagon spending.
The Senate's No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, dismissed the Obama proposals as "happy talk." And Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said, "We can't be abandoning spending discipline. That's what the president wants to do."
GOP lawmakers are focused primarily on reversing restraints on military spending, while Democrats and Obama are seeking new dollars for domestic programs such as education, research, health care and infrastructure.
Republicans argue that spending more in so many areas would undo the hard-fought reductions in the country's annual deficit. They also oppose many of the tax increases Obama has proposed to pay for the increased spending.
The budget constraints stem from the hard-fought budget and debt bill of August 2011 that both parties negotiated and Obama signed into law.
The threat of across-the-board cuts to virtually every federal agency was supposed to force Democrats and Republicans to compromise on smarter, less onerous spending cuts, but the measure kicked in when a supercommittee failed to reach an overall fiscal deal.
With the economy gaining steam while deficits decline, both parties have signaled they want to roll some of the cuts back. A bipartisan deal struck previously softened the blow by about a third for the 2014 and 2015 budget years.
Both parties are generally inclined to boost spending for the military, which is wrestling with threats from terrorism and extremist groups and has been strained by budget limits and two long wars.
"At what point do we, the institution and our nation, lose our soldiers' trust?" asked Gen. Raymond Odierno, the Army chief of staff, at a Senate hearing Wednesday.
Yet among congressional Republicans, there's no unanimity about where more Pentagon funds should come from -- a division within the GOP that Obama appeared eager to exploit.
Some House Republicans want to cut domestic agency budgets to free money for the military -- an approach that failed badly when they tried it two years ago. Some are considering cuts to so-called mandatory programs such as Social Security and Medicare, while others want to ignore the spending restraints altogether.
"Whatever it takes within reason to get this problem fixed is what I'm willing to do," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., adding that he would be willing to consider more tax revenue "just to get the damn thing done."
The White House said Obama's budget would be "fully paid for" by cutting inefficient programs and ending some tax provisions. Spokesman Josh Earnest said the end of a trust-fund provision and a few other tax tweaks would not only pay for Obama's increased spending but also offset middle-class tax cuts the president wants to create or expand.
Obama is proposing "what he believes is the best way for us to move forward," Earnest said. But he was quick to concede, "No president has ever put forward a budget with the expectation that Congress is going to pass it in its current form."
Details of the specifics Obama will seek in his budget began to trickle out ahead of the budget's formal release Monday. The Interior Department announced that Obama would seek $1 billion for American Indian schools, while Vice President Joe Biden said the budget would call for another $1 billion in aid for Central American nations.
Biden wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times that the aid would help Central American leaders make changes needed to address security, political and economic challenges. He specifically cited the economic conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that contributed to a surge in unaccompanied minors showing up on the U.S. border last summer.
At the Pentagon, Obama's increases would help pay for next-generation F-35 fighter jets, for ships and submarines, and for long-range Air Force tankers. Military leaders also have said the earlier cuts forced reductions in pilots' flying hours, training and equipment maintenance.
On the domestic side, Obama has proposed two free years of community college and new or expanded tax credits for child care and spouses who both work. He's called for raising the top capital-gains rate and consolidating education tax breaks, although some of those ideas already face opposition.
The president spoke to House Democrats on Thursday night as they seek to regroup at a policy retreat in Philadelphia after losing more than a dozen seats to Republicans in the November election.
Obama, who wants fast-track authority to approve trade agreements during his last two years in the White House, told Democrats he will give them more information about the specifics in the trade deals he's negotiating overseas, according to a staff member who attended the meeting.
Obama eagerly wants to finalize trade deals in Europe and Asia. His strongest opposition in Congress has come from Democrats who fear free-trade deals will harm workers. They want more information before agreeing to up-or-down votes on the deals.
The staff member said Obama told Democrats that previous trade deals haven't been perfect, but the new ones will improve the status quo. He said the U.S. can't afford to let China set rules for global trade.
The staff member wasn't authorized to discuss a private meeting and requested anonymity.
In the meeting Thursday, Obama also insisted that Republicans must not be allowed to use a funding bill for the Homeland Security Department to try to quash his executive actions on immigration. The White House called that GOP approach a "dangerous view" that would risk national security.
Democrats said there is strong support for Obama's plan.
"Anybody who's paying attention to our economy knows we have seen significant progress," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. "At the same time the president has recognized that we have a chronic problem of wage stagnation. ... The question's going to be who has solid answers to those challenges. The president laid a lot of that out."
Information for this article was contributed by Josh Lederman, Andrew Taylor, Jim Kuhnhenn and Nedra Pickler of The Associated Press; by Jonathan Allen, Annie Linskey and Billy House of Bloomberg News; and by Michael A. Memoli, Kathleen Hennessey and Lisa Mascaro of Tribune News Service.
A Section on 01/30/2015