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Declaring an end to "mindless austerity," President Barack Obama called for a surge in government spending Thursday, and asked Congress to throw out the sweeping budget cuts both parties agreed to four years ago when deficits were spiraling out of control.

Obama's proposed $74 billion in added spending about 7 percent would be split about evenly between defense programs and the domestic side of the budget. Although he's sought before to reverse the "sequester" spending cuts, Obama's pitch in this year's budget comes with the added oomph of an improving economy and big recent declines in federal deficits.

Taking a defiant tone, Obama vowed not to stand on the sidelines as he laid out his opening offer to Congress during remarks in Philadelphia, where House Democrats were gathered for their annual retreat.

"We need to stand up and go on offensive and not be defensive about what we believe in," Obama said. Mocking Republicans for their leaders' newfound interest in poverty and the middle class, he questioned whether they would back it up with substance when it mattered.

Republicans promise to produce a balanced budget blueprint this spring even as they worry about Pentagon spending. The Senate's No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, dismissed the Obama proposals as "happy talk." And Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania chided the president for "abandoning spending discipline."

GOP lawmakers are focused primarily on reversing restraints on military spending, while Democrats and Obama are seeking new domestic dollars for education, research, health care and infrastructure. Republicans argue that spending more in so many areas would undo the hard-fought reductions in the country's annual deficit.

They also oppose many of the tax hikes Obama has proposed to pay for the increased spending.

Neither party has tender feelings for the sequester, which cut bluntly across the entire federal budget and was originally designed more as a threat than as an actual spending plan. With the economy gaining steam while deficits decline, both parties have signaled they want to roll some of the cuts back. A bipartisan deal struck previously softened the blow by about a third for the 2014 and 2015 budget years.

Both parties are generally inclined to boost spending for the military, which is wrestling with threats from terrorism and extremist groups and has been strained by budget limits and two long wars. "At what point do we, the institution and our nation, lose our soldiers' trust?" asked Gen. Raymond Odierno, the Army chief of staff, at a Senate hearing Wednesday.

Yet among congressional Republicans, there's no unanimity about where more Pentagon funds should come from a division within the GOP that Obama appeared eager to exploit.

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Obama Calls for Spending Surge, Buoyed by Rising Economy