Washington ? President Bush would strengthen the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to pursue tax scofflaws, rich and poor, in a $2.23 trillion budget for 2004 that he will send Congress on Monday.

The initiative will be part of a fiscal blueprint that will project federal deficits for each of the next five years, though the shortfalls will decline annually, a Republican familiar with the Bush administration’s plans confirmed Saturday.

The unbroken string of red ink seemed all but certain since Friday, when administration and congressional sources said Bush’s plan envisioned record deficits of $307 billion this year and $304 billion in 2004. The shortfalls already have become a political battleground between Bush and Democrats.

The president’s budget would commence a fresh round of tax cuts, slow the growth of federal agency budgets to an overall 4 percent, and use $400 billion during the coming decade to overhaul Medicare by adding prescription drug coverage.

Bush would give the IRS a 5.3 percent boost to $10.4 billion for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. That will include $133 million for added audits of businesses and high-income taxpayers, including those who hide their income offshore.

More than $13 billion in unpaid taxes are going uncollected because the IRS lacks the resources to pursue them, the Treasury Department said.