What Gets Cut If The Debt Commission Doesn’t Agree?

A majority of the deficit reduction in the plan being proposed to resolve the debt ceiling crisis is supposed to come from the recommendations of a special commission. And to create an incentive for the commission to write a proposal that passes congress, there’s a “trigger” mechanism leading to automatic spending cuts if the commission proposal isn’t adopted. Half of those cuts come from defense, and half come from the non-defense side. But the sequestration mechanism “would exempt Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, programs for low-income families, and civilian and military retirement. Likewise, any cuts to Medicare would be capped and limited to the provider side.”

So what’s left? Here are Matt Cameron’s calculations:

Basically the “education, employment, and training” category of spending is going to get the largest share of the cuts. The State Department will also be really hit.