President Obama sent to Congress a $3.78 trillion budget request for fiscal 2014 that aims to reduce the deficit by trimming spending and eliminating some tax breaks affecting high earners.

The budget plan would eliminate sequestration and replace it with a $100 billion spending cut to defense and a $100 billion cut to discretionary spending, both to be spread out over 10 years. Those reductions are less drastic than sequestration’s $85 billion hit to defense and discretionary spending this year, totaling up to $1.2 trillion in reductions by 2021.

The president also proposes to save money by changes in calculating Social Security cost-of-living increases and by reductions to Medicare.

Despite the cuts, spending on federal information technology and for several federal agencies and programs would rise in Obama’s blueprint.

The proposed budget would lift IT spending to $82 billion. When adjusted for inflation, that amounts to no increase. Even so, IT would get a boost, in comparison to the previous two years of flat or declining budgets. The enacted IT budget was $80.1 billion in fiscal 2011, dropping to $79.4 billion in fiscal 2012. The fiscal 2013 request was $78.8 billion.

Most federal agencies would experience a drop in funding in 2014 under Obama’s framework, but the Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs departments would see increases.

The president wants to add nearly $300 million for VA disability claims handling. He also included $1 billion over five years for establishing a Veterans Job Corps, according to the Associated Press.

At Commerce, new projects include $1 billion for a nationwide network of manufacturing innovation institutes and $754 million for National Institute of Standards and Technologies laboratories for promoting cybersecurity, manufacturing, communications and disaster resilience, the AP reported.

High priorities at Energy include $5.3 billion to clean up nuclear waste at defense installations and $2.1 billion to modernize the nuclear weapons stockpile.

HHS spending includes increases in Medicaid health care for poor people under the “Obamacare” health reform law, the AP said.

Cybersecurity is another area of expansion. The Defense Department’s budget request of $526.6 billion for 2014 includes $4.7 billion for cyberspace operations.

The Homeland Security Department’s National Protection and Programs Directorate is seeking $810 million for cybersecurity programs, including $300 million to continue implementing continuous monitoring, according to Federal News Radio.

The Obama blueprint will be competing against alternative House and Senate budget plans. The House plan cuts spending more deeply while rejecting changes to taxes. The Senate package is fairly closely aligned with Obama’s plan, although the Senate did not touch Social Security cost-of-living adjustments.

Obama has called his plan a compromise because it includes entitlement spending cutbacks as many GOP budget hawks have recommended. However, GOP leaders so far have opposed the president’s plan, saying they are unwilling to support removal of tax breaks for the wealthy.

More information: White House FY2014 budget request http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/
Agency-by-agency budget requests, via Associated Press http://goo.gl/xdJIY