U.S. President Barack Obama is proposing higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations along with cuts in government spending as he submits his $3.8 trillion 2013 federal budget to Congress.

Mr. Obama outlined his budget priorities Monday at a community college near Washington, highlighting his push to boost funding for the education needed to help students get the technical skills needed to land good jobs.

He says the spending plan is aimed at stimulating the economy in the short term and cutting the federal deficit by around $4 trillion over the next decade. He proposes raising taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans and trimming government spending. The budget covers the 2013 fiscal year that begins in October, just a month before U.S. presidential and congressional elections.

Congress has to approve the budget before it can become law, and members of the opposition Republican party are sharply critical of Mr. Obama's budget priorities. The ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Jeff Sessions, said the Obama budget is full of “budget gimmicks” that overstate savings and understate costs. Republicans in the House of Representatives are preparing their own budget proposal for what will highlight the differences between the major parties' approaches to taxes and government spending during this presidential election year.

Mr. Obama's budget plan includes $1 trillion in spending cuts required by an agreement between the White House and Congress last August to address the federal deficit and raise the country's debt ceiling.

The agreement also set up a committee to find ways to trim the deficit by an additional $1.2 trillion over the next decade. But the committee failed to reach a deal by their November deadline, setting up massive automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs scheduled to begin in January 2013.