2011 Budget: Spending cuts and reductions

President Obama's 2011 budget proposes more than 120 cuts totaling roughly $20 billion in savings. Here's a look at some of the more interesting proposed cuts and spending reductions. Leave your thoughts on the budget in the comments section below:

DISCRETIONARY CUTS:

• Anthrax Vaccine Research: The budget cuts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine research program, because the "program has achieved its goals of reducing the number of vaccine doses, simplifying the administration route, and conducting long-term safety surveillance." Savings: $3 million

• C-17 Transport Plane: The administration will try once again to cut the program, even though Congress has provided funding for the program since the Pentagon ended it in 2007. The current fleet of C-17s and C-5 aircraft "are more than sufficient to meet DOD’s mobility needs, even under the most stressing scenarios," the budget said. Savings: $2.5 billion

• NASA's Constellation Program: The budget opts for "a bold new approach" that includes more funding for the agency's work on "climate science, green aviation, science education, and other priorities." (More on the Constellation cuts here.) Savings: $3.4 billion

• Election Reform Grants: The federal government has doled out more than $3 billion to help states with the 2002 Help America Vote Act. Approximately $1 billion remains unspent. Savings: $75 million

• EP-X Manned Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Aircraft: Designed to replace the Navy’s current EP-3 surveillance aircraft, but the administration says the EP-X doesn't meet their criteria for improving government contracting, "namely, clear and reasonable requirements that can be met with known
and affordable technology." Savings: $12 million

• Scholarships: The administration once again wants to cut the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, saying no administration has proposed new money for them in years. Savings: $2 million combined

• Navy's CGX Cruiser: The program's high cost and risk justifies its elimination, the budget said. The Navy will look for new ways to eventually replace its Ticonderoga Class Cruisers. Savings: $46 million

• Net Enabled Command Capability: The Pentagon will instead keep its current Global Command and Control Systems. The program was eliinated because it "was highly unlikely to be completed on schedule." Savings: $9 million

• Public Broadcasting Grants from the Agriculture Department: Since 2004, the USDA has distributed funds to help rural public television stations with their conversion to digital broadcasting. The administration wants public TV grants to come only from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Savings: $5 million

• Save America's Treasures and Preserve America Grants: The programs have "not demonstrated how they contribute to nationwide historic preservation goals." Savings: $30 million

• Voice of America: The budget wants to eliminate Croatian and Greek language broadcasts, because those countries no longer need VOA coverage. Savings: $3 million

• Army Corps of Engineers' Water and Wastewater Treatment: The environmental infrastructure projects fall outside the agency's main mission of commercial navigation, flood and storm damage. The budget redirects funding and focus to "higher-performing projects that are within the Corps’ main missions." Savings: $129 million

• Yucca Mountain: It's "not a workable option for a nuclear
waste repository," the budget said. The administration plans to develop a new nuclear waste management strategy. Savings: $197 million

REDUCTIONS:

• Bureau of Public Debt: The agency responsible for accounting for and administering the nation’s debt (duh!) will save $6 million by cutting travel and holding more teleconferences and consolidating its facilities at its Parkersburg, W. Va. location. Savings: $6 million

• Commission of Fine Arts: The budget wants to cut funding for National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs (which supports arts organizations in the District) by $5 million and turn the program into a competitive awards process.

• Commodity Payments to Wealthy Farmers: The administration wants to reduce the cap on direct payments from $40,000 to $30,000 and reduce the income eligibility limits by $250,000 over three years. Savings: More than $2 billion over the next 10 years

• Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle: The administration wants to delay it for one year while continuing the research and development in order to ensure better cost control. Savings: $50 million

• Reducing IT Duplication at the Dept. of Interior: The proposal would save $20 million by reducing duplication on IT infrastructure. Savings: $20 million

• Reducing the FBI's Light-Duty Sedans: The agency has a fleet of light, medium, and heavy duty vehicles and reducing the number of smaller cards will allow them to buy other vehicles to replace older ones. Savings: $4 million

• Cutting Interior Department's Travel Costs: The department will give focus on high-priority travel, management reforms and reduce conference costs while using more teleconferencing and web technology. Savings: $12 million

• Labor Department Will 'Power Off' Computers: Employees will be asked to turn off personal computers, laptops, printers, and monitors at the end of each work day, saving about $50 per computer annually. Savings: $727,000 over five years

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below