By JM Rieger and Steven T. Dennis

President Barack Obama’s opening salvo in this year’s budget wars with the new Republican Congress aims to shift the conversation away from four years of austerity. He received a predictably frosty reception. Obama’s $4.066 trillion budget would unshackle discretionary spending from the legislative tourniquet known as the sequester. That allows about a 7 percent increase in defense and domestic discretionary programs — or $74 billion. “I want to work with Congress to replace mindless austerity with smart investments,” Obama said Monday at the Department of Homeland Security as he announced his fiscal 2016 budget. “I’m not going to accept a budget that locks in sequestration going forward. It would be bad for our security and bad for our growth.”