WASHINGTON — President Obama unveiled a nearly $4 trillion budget proposal for 2015 Tuesday that includes more spending on infrastructure projects, job training and preschool, while cutting taxes for “working Americans” and raising taxes on the wealthy.
It has virtually no chance of getting enacted.
But Obama’s spending blueprint sets the Democratic agenda for the 2014 congressional elections by drawing a stark contrast with Republicans who want less spending and less government.
Obama proposed a host of new stimulus “investments” that would boost spending $56 billion above current caps set by the bipartisan budget compromise last year.
“Even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by, let alone get ahead,” Obama said in his budget message to Congress. “And too many still are not working at all. Our job is to reverse those trends.”
His wish list includes:
- Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for 13.5 million low-earning workers without children and doubling the maximum value of the credit.
- An ambitious, four-year, $302 billion plan for road projects that would be paid for with revenue from a proposed business tax reform.
- A “Preschool for All” plan that provides early education for every 4-year-old.
- A new Race to the Top competition for schools to win extra federal funds.
- Establishing 45 public-private manufacturing institutes in hardscrabble American towns suffering from plant closures or major employers moving out.
To help foot the bill for these and other spending initiatives, Obama wants to impose a so-called “Buffett tax” — named for billionaire Warren Buffett. It would hit the wealthiest Americans with extra taxes.
He would also hike taxes on tobacco products, airline passenger fees and managers of private investment funds, and cap retirement account tax benefits for the rich.
The budget’s bottom line was $3.9 trillion in spending, creating a $564 billion budget deficit — slightly better than the $649 billion deficit in 2014.
The president’s plan immediately was trashed by Republican lawmakers.
“After years of fiscal and economic mismanagement, the president has offered perhaps his most irresponsible budget yet,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
“American families looking for jobs and opportunity will find only more government in this plan. Spending too much, borrowing too much, and taxing too much, it would hurt our economy and cost jobs,” he said. “In the president’s vision for our future, America’s budget never balances — ever.”
The spending package underscores the waning interest in deficit reduction, keeping the White House’s promise that the era of budget austerity has ended.
Obama reprised much of his stalled agenda in the blueprint, such as calling on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour and pass immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for America’s estimated 12 million illegal aliens.
Both of those initiatives have little chance of gaining new traction in Congress, but they will be featured prominently in Democratic stump speeches this campaigns season.