Obama’s spend plan a ‘campaign document’

President Barack Obama called for aggressive spending to boost growth and for 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 in cutting the federal deficit that was a trillion-plus dollars for a fourth year in a row.