President Barack Obama proposed a budget Monday that shows a sharp contrast with Republicans.

The president laid out a plan that calls for higher taxes on the rich and stimulating and rebuilding the economy through increased spending on popular programs like infrastructure and manufacturing.

The plan is better than what is being proposed by the Republican presidential candidates who oppose any tax increase on the rich while seeking deeper cuts in spending on crucial social programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

It should be noted that some liberal Democrats will also oppose the president plan because it calls for slashing about $4 trillion to balance deficit reduction, including $1 trillion in spending cuts agreed to last year after a series of confrontations with Republicans in Congress.

The president’s plan proposes $350 billion in short-term job spending, as well as a six-year transportation and infrastructure program that would cost $476 billion. The plan seeks $60 billion to refurbish at least 35,000 schools and help state and local governments hire and retain teachers, firefighters and police officers.

The budget asks for a simpler and fairer tax code plan called the “Buffet rule,” named after billionaire investor Warren E. Buffet which is devised to ensure that households earning more than $1 million a year pay no less than 30 percent of their income in taxes. Buffet said he currently pays a lower percentage in taxes than his secretary.

The budget also allows the Busch era tax cuts to expire for families earning more than $250,000 a year.

The president will be strongly opposed by Congressional Republicans on his budget plan and for breaking his promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term.

But a focus on deficit reduction could reverse the steady economic gains that have been made in Obama’s first term.

Obama is right to focus the budget on rebuilding the economy rather than austerity. A budget plan in which job programs are paid for with tax increases on the rich and savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be used for deficit reduction as well as an increase in investments in manufacturing and infrastructure, and that proposes a fairer tax plan in which everyone pays their fair share is better than a plan of severe cuts without tax increases proposed by Republicans.

The focus should be jobs and not deficit reduction.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office if the actual jobless rate is a full percentage point lower than it could mean a $95 billion reduction in the deficit.

The president should stand firm and make his case to the American people on his budget plan.