So it's the first of the month and time to make payroll for every federal employee. That includes our active duty military and disabled veterans who need the money to pay their bills. It includes air traffic controllers, FBI agents, research scientists, public health nurses, and kitchen staff at cafeterias in the capital, in National Parks, and the Smithsonian museum. All of these people have already done their jobs and are counting on their paychecks to cover their own obligations. It's also time to pay retirees surviving in barely adequate Social Security benefits, and time to pay contractors who are trying to keep highways and bridges open. It's time to pay the business who delivered the new copy machine yesterday, to pay for new vehicles in the motor pool, and the fuel to run them. And, oh yeah, also time to make interest payments to bondholders.Who looks at that list and says: "Time to prioritize; we absolutely must make the interest payments to the bankers, financial institutions, and rich bondholders?" Only the bankers, financial institutions and rich bondholders. By any rational criteria and set of values interest payments are the least critical obligation and the most readily postponed. Wall Street should be wary of demanding prioritization.

So it's the first of the month and time to make payroll for every federal employee. That includes our active duty military and disabled veterans who need the money to pay their bills. It includes air traffic controllers, FBI agents, research scientists, public health nurses, and kitchen staff at cafeterias in the capital, in National Parks, and the Smithsonian museum. All of these people have already done their jobs and are counting on their paychecks to cover their own obligations. It's also time to pay retirees surviving in barely adequate Social Security benefits, and time to pay contractors who are trying to keep highways and bridges open. It's time to pay the business who delivered the new copy machine yesterday, to pay for new vehicles in the motor pool, and the fuel to run them. And, oh yeah, also time to make interest payments to bondholders.Who looks at that list and says: "Time to prioritize; we absolutely must make the interest payments to the bankers, financial institutions, and rich bondholders?" Only the bankers, financial institutions and rich bondholders. By any rational criteria and set of values interest payments are the least critical obligation and the most readily postponed. Wall Street should be wary of demanding prioritization.

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