Obama election-year budget aims to spur hiring

US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on his administration's 2013 budget at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia, Feb 13, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama called on Monday for new spending to boost growth and higher taxes on the rich, laying out an election-year vision for America in a budget that drew heavy fire from Republicans for failing to curb huge deficits.

Obama's 2013 spending proposal is expected to go nowhere in a divided Congress and is widely seen as more of a campaign document that frames his economic pitch to voters and seeks to shift the focus from deficits to economic growth.

It fleshed out a major theme of his re-election campaign: "economic fairness". He wants wealthier Americans to bear more of the burden of slashing a federal deficit that was a trillion plus dollars for a fourth year in a row.

The $3.8 trillion budget proposal is a "reflection of shared responsibilities", the Democratic president said at a campaign-style event in Annandale, Virginia, referring to his call for a minimum 30 percent tax on millionaires.

Obama would like to use revenue from the tax, named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, to replace the widely disliked Alternative Minimum Tax, which Congress must adjust annually to avoid hitting the middle class.

In one of his best platforms to lay out his economic priorities before the Nov 6 election, Obama called for more than $800 billion for job creation and infrastructure investment, including billions of dollars for roads, railways and schools.

His plan sets aside money to hire more teachers, police and firefighters and invest in manufacturing, while extending tax breaks to spur hiring, in an appeal to voters who remain worried about the economic recovery.

"At a time when our economy is growing and creating jobs at a faster clip, we've got to do everything in our power to keep this recovery on track," Obama said. He casts Republicans as representing the party for the rich, while they paint him as a tax-and-spend liberal.

The budget projects deficits remaining high this year and next before starting to decline, meaning more borrowing that will add well over $7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.