We saw what happened in the summer of 2011 when Congress did flirt with default, when House Republicans in particular used that as an issue to try to achieve some political objectives and just the mere flirtation with default caused severe economic harm, which I spelled out yesterday.
Most fusion reactions being considered for power generation create significant amounts of neutron radiation, which can cause severe amounts of harm and damage.
Rather than using the crisis to damn the inefficiency of municipal workers, he has become their champion, arguing that severe cuts would do more to harm the city by damaging services than higher taxes would by raising costs.