US President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed a $3.9 trillion budget package for the fiscal year 2015 which calls for raising taxes on the rich and expanding tax credits for the poor and middle class.
The president's spending plan for the fiscal year that begins on October 1 also proposes a rise in the minimum wage and for new spending on infrastructure.
The blueprints are unlikely to produce much immediate legislative action, but they provide road maps for Democrats and Republicans heading into midterm elections in November.
"This budget expands apprenticeships to connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs," Obama said in his remarks at a school in the national capital moments after the White House sent his annual budget proposals to the Congress.
"This budget gives millions more workers the opportunity to take advantage of the tax credit, and it pays for it by closing loopholes like the ones that let wealthy individuals classify themselves as a small business to avoid paying their fair share of taxes," he said.
"This budget will also continue to put our fiscal house in order over the long term, not by putting the burden on folks who can least afford it but by reforming our tax code and our immigration system and building on the progress that we've made to reduce health care costs under the Affordable Care Act," he said.
In his latest request to Congress, Obama plans to seek $56 billion in fresh spending to expand educational offerings for preschoolers and job training for laid-off workers, among other priorities — the very types of programmes that Republicans say have been proved ineffective.
Obama said this budget is about choices and values.
"As a country, we we've got to make a decision if we're going to protects tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans or if we're going to make smart investments necessary to create jobs and grow our economy and expand opportunity for every American," he said.
Obama also proposes to establish a national network of 45 manufacturing institutes; supports ground-breaking research to fight disease, protect the environment, and develop new technologies, and makes permanent the R&D Tax Credit.
It lays out an ambitious, four-year $302 billion surface transportation reauthorisation proposal paid for with transition revenue from pro-growth business tax reform and promotes government management that delivers improved services that are more effective, efficient, and supportive of economic growth.
Obama in his budget proposes $651 billion in new revenue from the rich.
