it could shut down the housing department, treasury, department of homeland security, food and drug administration, u.s. small business administration if the nation defaults, that will mean pain for millions of hard-working americans already burdened with the pandemic. salaries for federal workers would be impacted. so would payment to medicaid recipients, social security checks, paychecks for military personnel in there s a shutdown, as well as monthly child tax credit departments. let s talk about this with cnn correspondent john harwood. where do things stand here? tax pears will be the ones holding the bag if you see a shutdown or a default. . well, it s a mess. and this may not be the last week from hell. even if the government shutdown is avoided. we should level set at the beginning. theres not going to be a government shutdown. they re going to work that out. they re going to separate that