US cities with military bases risk economic damage in debt ceiling fight

The United States could default on its debt in less than two weeks, which would mean the government won't be able to meet all of its financial obligations including salaries paid to federal workers and payments to Social Security recipients. About a sixth of government spending goes toward national defense, a quarter of which is to pay military personnel, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If the United States can't pay its national defense bills, cities with large military bases face a potentially massive fallout, encompassing missed payments, rising debt and a significant pullback in spending that would cut into local businesses' bottom lines.