Who do you stiff - retirees on Social Security, members of the military, doctors who look after Medicare patients, taxpayers who are waiting for their refunds? Bondholders are paid through a separate computer system, so they can easily be given priority. HORSLEY: Yeah, for the government, it's a very tough call. So how is the government going to decide who gets paid and who doesn't? MARTIN: Which is like the way a lot of families live, right? I mean, if you don't have enough money to pay all your bills, you prioritize some over the others. And if the government can't borrow more money, some bills are going to go unpaid. Keep in mind, tax revenue covers only about 75 cents of every dollar the government spends. But the government has tens of billions of dollars in other bills that it's supposed to pay before that, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says it's very likely the government will not have enough money to cover all those bills unless Congress raises the debt limit soon.

And interest isn't due until the middle of June anyway. The government almost certainly will keep making those payments. HORSLEY: If all you're concerned about is making interest payments on the government's debt, she is right. MARTIN: So let me briefly fact-check that. We're not going to run out of money to pay the interest on the debt because we get 11 times the interest on the debt and tax revenues year over year. MARTIN: So let me start with Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina. MARTIN: NPR's Scott Horsley has been asking what that might look like. The Treasury Department says that's the earliest date at which the U.S. But hardly more than a week remains before June 1. INSKEEP: McCarthy said after the meeting, I believe we can get it done. We both know we have a significant responsibility.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We still have some disagreements, but I think we may be able to get where we have to go. Congress needs to do that in order to meet its legal obligations. They met yesterday to negotiate over raising the federal debt limit. President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy keeps saying not to worry about that. What happens if the government runs out of money to pay its bills?

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