from the public debt, but that doesn't mean that we have to pay every bill the day it comes in, 100 cents on the dollar. >> in fact, house republicans even passed a bill in may called the full faith and credit act, requiring the treasury to prioritize payments to creditors, rather than, say, medicaid payments to doctors, in the event of a debt ceiling breach. >> this bill requires, not allows, requires treasury to continue to pay principal and interest on existing debt if and only if we hit the debt ceiling before a deal is reached. this is a backstop that takes default off the table. >> now in isolation, that sounds almost reasonable, doesn't it? it's not. it's nonsense, and here's why. think for just a second about how massively complicated it is to deal with all of the money flowing through the united states government every single day. you've got intakes like payroll taxes and bond purchases coming in and all sorts of money going out, interest to bondholders, social security payments, even payroll checks to members of