America
Obama to raise spending on defence, education, health
By
By Miriam BurguesWashington, Jan 30
President Barack
Obama will present his annual budget proposals for the 2016 fiscal year
next week, with proposed boosts in expenditure on defence, health and
education programmes.
In an article published in "The Huffington
Post" Thursday, Obama said his budget would "fully reverse" the spending
cuts known as sequestration that took effect in 2013 to reduce the
deficit.
Those cuts, valued at $1.2 trillion until 2023, impacted
several social welfare programmes of the government and the Pentagon's
budget, in particular.
According to the White House, Obama will
call for an increase in discretionary spending by $74 billion which
represents a 7 percent jump over the limits set by those cuts.
The
budget, to be presented Monday, proposes $561 billion in defence
spending and national security, and $530 billion for non-defence
domestic programmes.
"If Congress rejects my plan and refuses to
undo these arbitrary cuts, it will threaten our economy and our
military," warned Obama.
Moreover, investments in key areas will
fall to their lowest level in 10 years, jeopardising US research,
education, infrastructure and national security, he added.
The
new budget seeks new investments in advanced manufacturing centres and
in the reconstruction of infrastructure as well as paid sick leave for
working parents.
Another one of his "pragmatic" proposals is to
make the first two years of community college free which he announced
earlier this month.
This week, Obama withdrew his controversial
plan to end 529 college savings plans after a backlash from both
Republican and Democratic legislators.
The budget also proposes
boosting federal spending to over $1.2 billion to combat infections
caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria which, according to the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affect two million people
and cause 23,000 deaths in the country annually.
Obama declared
that all these plans would be financed through cuts in inefficient
spending and by closing the tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy.
The
presentation of the budget promises to give rise to new battles with
the Republicans, most of whom are opposed to increasing public spending.
The
government is also under pressure from Democrats themselves to approve a
bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) beyond Feb 27
when its funds will run out.
On Jan 14, the House passed a bill
to fund the DHS beyond that date leaving no funds for Obama's executive
actions to legalise some five million undocumented immigrants.