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WASHINGTON, March 4 (UPI) -- President Obama released his budget proposal Tuesday that seeks $3.9 trillion in spending, including $56 billion in new spending above the cap in place. The stimulus spending is split between defense and non-defense line items, including research, education, manufacturing initiatives, jobs training, climate change and restoring cuts to the IRS, the Hill reported. They would be paid for by raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.
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The blueprint for fiscal year 2015 also seeks $302 billion in infrastructure spending over four years and a series of tax breaks for lower-income workers.
"We have made progress over the last 5 years. But our work is not done. This budget provides a road map to ensuring middle class families and those working to be a part of the middle class can feel secure in their jobs, homes, and budgets," Obama said in his budget message.
Speaking at an elementary school in Washington, Obama said the federal budget wasn't "just about numbers. It's about our values."
"And it's about our future, and how well we are laying the groundwork for those young children that I was with just a few moments ago, to be able to succeed here in America," Obama said. "These kids may not be the most excited people in town on budget day, but my budget is designed with their generation and future generations in mind."
He said his "opportunity agenda" is built on four principles -- good jobs and good wages, ensuring the workforce is properly trained, guaranteeing all children have access to a "world-class education" and ensuring the economy "is one in which hard work is rewarded."
Obama called his budget blueprint "a road map for creating jobs with good wages and expanding opportunity for Americans. And, at a time when our deficit has been cut in half, it enables us to meet our obligations to future generations without a mountain of debt."
The budget projects the deficit would be 1.6 percent of the economy by 2024, lower than the 1.7 percent deficit projected for 2023 in his last spending blueprint, the Hill said.
This year's blueprint projects 10 years of deficits at $4.9 trillion, compared to last year's projections of $5.2 trillion over 10 years. The gross federal debt would rise to $25 trillion in 2024 under Obama's budget, up from $17.9 trillion in 2014.
The House and Senate budget negotiators already are operating on a top-line spending level of $1.014 trillion from the December bipartisan budget deal.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., criticized Obama's budget for not taking the long-term deficit seriously.
"This budget isn't a serious document; it's a campaign brochure. In divided government, we need leadership and collaboration. And in this budget, we have neither," said Ryan, who plans to release his own plan by early April. "The president has just three years left in his administration, and yet he seems determined to do nothing about our fiscal challenges."
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., who negotiated the bi-partisan December deal and said last week Senate Democrats would not develop their own budget this year, praised Obama's proposal.
"[While] the American people have a budget in place and the certainty they deserve that there won't be another budget crisis through the end of 2015, we in Congress owe it to them to work together to build on that bipartisan foundation," Murray said.
Among other things, Obama's budget assumes Congress will pass an immigration bill that would yield $158 billion in the first 10 years and nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction over 20 years, the Hill said.
The White House also counted $650 billion in revenue increases from tax reform and $402 billion in savings through reforms to Medicare and Medicaid, the Hill said. The tax code changes include limiting the value of tax deductions to 28 percent and requiring millionaires to pay at least 30 percent of their income after deducting for charitable contributions.
The budget also seeks an end to the "carried interest" provision that allows private investment managers to pay a lower rate on most of their earnings, and to a loophole that allows individuals to avoid paying Medicare payroll taxes.
Obama said revenue from ending the two provisions would be used to increase the value of the Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers to $1,000, lower the minimum age requirement from 24 years to 21 and raise the maximum age to 65.
The budget also outlines Obama's plan to implement cuts to defense imposed by sequestration.
