In his effort to put the nation on a sustainable fiscal path in his fiscal 2012 budget proposal, President Obama is literally starting under his own roof.

Obama has proposed cutting the executive residence operating and entertaining expenses by about $350,000 compared to his 2011 budget request, which was never enacted. In this year's proposal, the White House believes it can pay all its heating, lighting and maintenance as well as cover all entertaining costs in the president's residence for $13,658,000.

Not surprisingly, budget hawks on the Republican side of the aisle believe that Obama can run his home on a tighter budget.

According to a list of spending cuts released by GOP leaders late last week in their effort to trim $100 billion from the current budget, Republicans believe the executive residence can be run on a more modest budget of about $13,100,000.

Vice President Joe Biden's residential operating budget also did not escape without getting a trim.

After requesting $335,000 in operating expenses for the residence of the vice president in Obama's 2011 proposal, the White House requested $307,000 for 2012. That is actually slightly more than the $20,000 that Republicans wanted trimmed from this year's budget.

Other cuts included under the Executive Office of the President in the budget that was released today will have a bit more significant impact on battling the deficit.

The president is requesting $91.66 million for the Office of Management and Budget for fiscal 2012. That is down $1.2 million from the 2011 request. Republicans believe there is at least another $3.2 million in savings to be found at OMB.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy -- which led the way in crafting the long-awaited guidelines that were released at the end of last year as part of Obama's push for scientific integrity at federal agencies - took a relatively light hit of 5 percent when compared to the 2011 budget proposal. The White House cut the office's budget $340,000 to $6.65 million.

At a time of drastic cuts, that is not bad, but it still seems drastic when compared to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Environmental Quality, which coordinate federal environmental efforts across federal agencies.

CEQ is looking at a 0.1 percent cut. After requesting $3.448 million for CEQ in his 2011 proposal, Obama pared the agency's 2012 request back to $3.444 million.