Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told our troops in Afghanistan that if the stalemate in Washington is not resolved before the August 2nd deadline, then he cannot guarantee they will continue getting their paychecks.
“I’d like to give you a better answer than that right now, I just honestly don’t know,” he said, when confronted with questions about Washington’s inability to do what they have done many times in the past – raising the debt ceiling. And knowing that these troops depends on their paycheck to help families back home, Mike Mullen spoke about the consequence of a default, saying, ” if paychecks were to stop, it would have a devastating impact.”
The United States will have $172 billion of revenue between August 3 and August 31. If Congress is not able to raise the debt ceiling from $14.3 trillion, the revenue on hand will not be able to pay our past bills and meet our present obligations to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, defense, interest on the debt, vendor payments, Labor, Commerce and unemployment insurance among others.
It is a sad state of affairs to have soldiers, fighting and risking their lives to maintain the security of this nation, worry about whether they will get a paycheck for their families at home.
