To make absolutely sure, I intend to introduce legislation that would require the Treasury to make interest payments on our debt its first priority in the event that the debt ceiling is not raised.
If Congress imposes a hard budget constraint on itself by refusing to raise the debt ceiling and establishes Social Security and interest on the debt as priority must-pays out of revenues before any other programs may be funded, it would require total other, non-priority spending to be reduced not quite one-third on average during the next ten years.
The U.S. Treasury will give priority to making interest payments to holders of government bonds if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, according to an administration official.