- NEW: President Obama calls Republican spending plans "social Darwinism"
- Obama advocates shared responsibility through higher taxes on the wealthy
- The president speaks to a media luncheon in Washington
- Once again, Obama has a high-profile event on a primary election day
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama launched a major assault Tuesday on the House-passed Republican budget proposal embraced by front-running GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, calling it "social Darwinism" that would stifle the American dream.
In a speech to a media luncheon, Obama described the measure prepared by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and passed by the House as a "Trojan Horse" that is disguised as a deficit reduction plan but actually imposes a "radical vision."
"It is thinly-veiled Social Darwinism," Obama said. "It is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everyone who's willing to work for it -- a place where prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top, but grows outward from the heart of the middle class."
He added that "by gutting the very things we need to grow an economy that's built to last -- education and training; research and development;, infrastructure -- it's a prescription for decline."
The remarks signaled Obama's full engagement in his re-election campaign for the November general election. In a step usually reserved for the president's most important speeches, the White House released excerpts of the remarks before the president spoke to emphasize its main messaging.
So far this year, Obama has generally avoided direct comment on the Republican nomination race, which Romney leads by a wide margin.
However, he has increasingly portrayed the upcoming election as a choice between maintaining his policies and vision for continued economic recovery and investment in future growth versus what he calls failed Republican policies of the past based on deep spending cuts and lower taxes intended to benefit the corporate class.
"In this country, broad-based prosperity has never trickled down from the success of a wealthy few," Obama said Tuesday. "It has always come from the success of a strong and growing middle class."
In particular, he focused on the Ryan budget proposal for 2013 recently passed by the Republican-led House.
The $3.5 trillion plan would lower tax rates and cut spending while reforming the Medicare and Medicaid government-run health care programs for senior citizens, the disabled and the poor.
Ryan and other conservatives argue that major reforms are needed to subdue increasing federal deficits and debt, with particular focus on entitlement programs that are the main contributors to the budget imbalance.
For example, the Ryan budget would convert federal Medicaid funding for states into block grants. Such a step could increase the cost burden on states, but would give them more autonomy about how to set up their Medicaid programs. As a result, a state could reduce how many people are eligible or increase enrollees' cost-sharing obligations.
Obama called such a proposal an attempt to shift the burden of deficit reduction to the middle class and the needy.
The president called for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that includes increased tax revenue through higher rates on the wealthy.
In particular, Obama again called for adoption of the so-called Buffett rule, a proposal that would have all Americans making more than $1 million pay at least a 30% tax rate. The Senate is expected to vote on a form of the proposal named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has complained that the current tax code allows him to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary.
Senior administration officials, speaking on condition of not being identified, said Obama targeted the Ryan budget plan because it has been praised by Romney and other Republican candidates.
According to the administration officials, voters are likely to oppose the Ryan plan because it includes cuts to popular entitlement programs.
The Obama speech to a luncheon by The Associated Press at the American Society of News Editors convention occurred on the same day as primary elections in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Obama also has scheduled high-profile events on primary days earlier this year, including a speech at a United Auto Workers conference on the day of the Michigan primary in February, a news conference on Super Tuesday in early March and a visit to an opening NCAA basketball tournament game with visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron on the night that Alabama and Mississippi voted.
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