Obama Bids to Thwart Automatic Spending Cuts

U.S. President Barack Obama will on Thursday unveil plans to forestall automatic budget cuts, increasing spending $74 billion above a cap for 2016.

Rolling out budget proposals for the coming year, White House officials said that Obama will seek to freeze the so-called sequester, which would automatically trim spending by about $1 trillion by 2021.

The sequester came into effect in 2013 after Democrats and Republicans were unable to reach a deal on cutting the deficit.

Critics say the cuts are arbitrary, job destroying and detrimental to the country's military. 

Visiting Philadelphia to address Democratic lawmakers, Obama is expected to make a plea to end what the official called "manufactured crises and mindless austerity."

A White House official said Obama's budget plan would increases spending by about seven percent above the level set by the cap, with cash split roughly equally between defense and non-defense spending.

"The president will propose to end the across-the-board sequester cuts that threaten our economy and our military," a White House official said.

Obama's full budget will be released on Monday but, with his Republican opponents in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, it is likely to face stiff opposition.

Republicans have been split on the automatic cuts, with divisions emerging between those who want to dramatically slash government spending and those who are staunchly supportive of the military.

Obama will also propose closing tax loopholes to help fund infrastructure spending and research into antibiotic resistant bacteria and precision medicine.

Republicans are likely to paint that as a tax increase, something many have vowed to oppose.

"If Congress rejects my plan and refuses to undo these arbitrary cuts, it will threaten our economy and our military," Obama wrote in a Huffington Post opinion article published Thursday.

"I know that there are Republicans in Congress who disagree with my approach, and I look forward to hearing their ideas for how we can pay for what the middle class needs to grow."

To that end Obama will also outline proposals mentioned in his recent State of the Union address, namely guaranteeing paid sick leave and making community college free for some students.