There is a law on the books that defines what bills MUST be paid first if we have no more borrowing limit.
Paying the interest on existing debt first.
Then pay things like Social Security
The last things priority wise is the discretionary spending.
I don’t remember the name of the law, and the exact order of the spending, but the crux of it is we pay out DEBTS first.
The Federal Government is collecting record revenue, so they have plenty of money to pay their DEBTS, just just don’t have money to spend foolishly.
That was my understanding. We would have a ways to go before we even get to an “Austerity” budget.