Grist highlights a few of the cuts House Republicans are proposing as part of their mission to "eliminate waste." As you might expect, they don't save money so much as target programs that create green jobs, provide alternative transportation, and fund family planning. Naturally, the GOP held harmless things like the military (whose budget, at $660 billion in 2010, is larger than the rest of the world's military spending combined). I've included my own explanations of what some of the programs do in brackets.

Here are a few proposed cuts that might be of particular interest to Grist readers:

• Energy Star Program [which funds residential and business energy efficiency improvements]: $52 million a year.


• Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants: $2.5 billion a year.


• DOE Weatherization Grants to States [grants for weatherization and energy efficiency that go to low-income families and residents of Native American reservations]: $530 million a year.


• Amtrak Subsidies: $1.565 billion a year. (There are no cuts to highway subsidies, of course.)


• Technology Innovation Program [which funds research in areas of "critical national need," like monitoring and repairing bridges, pipelines, and other infrastructure]: $70 million a year. (Wait, I thought support for innovation was "post-partisan"!)


• Applied Research at Department of Energy: $1.27 billion a year.


• New Starts Transit [the federal government's primary funding source for locally planned and implemented transit projects like Sound Transit]: $2 billion a year.


• Subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: $12.5 million a year.


• Title X Family Planning [the only federal program that provides contraceptives and family planning services, and thus prevents abortions]: $318 million a year.


• Appalachian Regional Commission [which promotes sustainable economic development in poverty-stricken Appalachia]: $76 million a year. (Why do we need this? They already have coal mines there!)


• FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership [a program that researches ways to reduce oil dependence and emissions]: $200 million a year.


• Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: $150 million a year.


• National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program [which provides assistance to farmers transitioning to organic farming in 15 states]: $56.2 million a year.

Delightful, no? That's to say nothing of the proposed cuts to public broadcasting, the NEA, historic building preservation, community development, etc., etc.

So, to summarize: Less money for green jobs, less money for energy efficiency, less money for alternatives to driving alone in emission-spewing cars, and what appears to be the total elimination of government funding for contraception, combined with preservation of all funding for the military, Big Ag subsidies, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Oh, and just to put a cherry on top, the Republican proposal would also repeal the Davis-Bacon Act, which mandates prevailing wages on public works projects. Cool!