deadline. many believe the u.s. will bump up against the debt ceiling sometime in august but have different views about what that means jshes the u.s. would revenuese enough tax reeve to cover some 56% of its bills. permit payments on the national debt interest, social security, medicare and most defense spending. beyond that there would be very little cash left. 23 republican senators wrote to president obama a month ago, urging him to develop contingency plans well ahead of hitting the debt ceiling saying it would not be pleasant operating under a debt ceiling budget and no one is recommending it but it would not be arm g are ma go armagedy would have to sort through bills and decide which to pay. there is no legal basis for saying i m paying you and not you. you can t cut 47% of spending without cutting things that are really important and very