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It's good that President Obama is trying to wring waste out of the US budget, say deficit hawks. But the $17 billion in cuts proposed by the administration on Thursday are small change in the context of $3.5 trillion in annual federal spending.

Plus, Obama's hit list leaves unaddressed what many experts cite as the real US deficit difficulty: fast-growing entitlements, particularly the big health programs Medicare and Medicaid.

鈥淚 have a little bit of concern that by making a big deal out of these program cuts [Obama] doesn鈥檛 prepare the public for the really tough choices we need to make in the years ahead,鈥� says Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a group that promotes deficit-reduction.

Obama outlined his recommended $17 billion in savings at a time when he is attempting to rally the nation behind his economic policies and convince both voters and markets that he will be fiscally prudent in years to come.

On the chopping block

The 121 programs on his cut list ranged from the C-17 airlifter to early education efforts to federal programs that pay for the cleanup of abandoned mines.

The thread that connects all the targeted programs is that they no longer work, said administration officials. They are either outmoded, duplicated by other government efforts, or simply unnecessary.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e trying to do is reorient government activity toward things that work,鈥� said Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), during a conference call with reporters.

Obama鈥檚 budget proposes spending $3.55 trillion in the fiscal year beginning in October. The fiscal 2010 deficit will be $1.17 trillion, the budget estimates, down from an estimated $1.75 trillion for the current fiscal year.

About half of the of the dollar value of the proposed $17 billion in savings would come from defense. Obama鈥檚 budget, for instance, would terminate a new long-range bomber slated for deployment in 2018. It would eliminate $465 billion earmarked for development of an alternative engine for the new Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

Domestic cuts would include Loran-C, a long-range radio navigation system made obsolete by Global Positioning System receivers. Obama recommends eliminating a Department of Education attach茅 based in Paris, and he calls for a halt in payments to states for environmental work in abandoned mines that already have been cleaned up.

The White House is proposing to save $10 million by doing away with the Brownfields Economic Development Initiative, a Department of Housing and Urban Development program, because 鈥渓ocal governments have access to other public and private funds that can address the same purposes,鈥� according to an OMB analysis.

It also wants to eliminate the early childhood education program Even Start, because 鈥渢hree national evaluations show the program is not effective,鈥� according to OMB.

If at first you don't succeed....

In general, the Obama administration appears to have gone after what might be called low-hanging fruit, say budget experts.

鈥淚n the program terminations there is nothing terribly surprising,鈥� says James Horney, director of federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 鈥淭heir arguments seem to make sense.鈥�

In some cases, they are arguments that have been made before, to no avail.

President Bush tried for years to zero out the JSF alternative engine, for instance, only to see it added back every time by members of Congress eager to protect jobs in their districts.

Obama鈥檚 willingness to try again to eliminate the alternative engine is 鈥渨elcome,鈥� said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, in a statement. But 鈥渋t will be a tough nut to crack,鈥� he said.

Many Republican lawmakers noted that Obama鈥檚 list of proposed cuts contained some items targeted in the past by Mr. Bush.

鈥淲hile we appreciate the newfound attention to saving taxpayer dollars from this administration, we respectfully [suggest] that we should do far more,鈥� said House minority leader John Boehner (R) of Ohio.

New priorities, not less spending

It鈥檚 important to note that Obama's cuts, if implemented, would not actually reduce government spending. The cash would be shifted to areas the administration rates as higher priorities.

Nor are extra jet engines and early education efforts the kinds of programs that 鈥済ot the budget off track,鈥� says Mr. Bixby of the Concord Coalition. 鈥淚n a certain sense, these types of things are a distraction,鈥� says Bixby, talking of the administration鈥檚 promotion of its proposed cuts.

The looming explosion of costs in entitlements, driven by healthcare inflation and the retirement of the baby boomers, is the real problem, he says.

That is something Obama officials say they fully recognize. Budget chief Orszag is an expert in healthcare costs and has long carried out something of a personal crusade to try to get Washington to bring them under control.

Seventeen billion dollars in proposed reductions is 鈥渞eal money,鈥� said Orszag, adding, 鈥淭his is an important first step but not the end of the process.鈥�