ability of Treasury to prioritize payments

[SivaGanesha 2]

It is often claimed that if the debt ceiling is not raised, Treasury would lack even the technical ability to prioritize payments:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec13/debtceiling_10-03.html

Thus--according to this belief--even if it would be desirable and legal to give first priority to, say, interest payments on bonds, Treasury would not technically be able to do so.

This claim seems hard to believe, though, because it seems to me that in a shutdown situation--even without the threat of default--we are ALREADY prioritizing payments--and so we must have the technical ability to do so. So, for example, with a shutdown, Social Security checks still go out, but paychecks for federal workers are held back until the crisis is resolved.

And there seems to be some ability to tweak these priorities as the crisis progresses. For example, active duty military would have potentially also had their paychecks delayed, but Congress passed legislation ensuring they will get paid even during the shutdown.

The exact priorities might change as the debt ceiling is breached, but it seems hard to believe that Treasury doesn't have the technical ability to do so.

"It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014