For the second year in a row President Barack Obama wants to scrap the C-17 cargo plane, a move which if accepted by Congress would mean 5,000 lost jobs at the Long Beach plant.

In his budget proposal released this morning, Obama says he’s eliminating the program “because additional aircraft are not needed.’’ The cut would save $2.5 billion, he said.

“If we don’t receive any orders beyond what we have today we would deliver the last C-17 in September, 2012,’’ said Boeing spokesman Jerry Drelling.

Last year Obama also zeroed out the program but California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and House members, including Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, went to bat for the plane. They succeeded in getting 10 more aircraft funded in this year’s budget.

&#8226 Read the full Orange County Register story.