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Were the U.S. to default on its debt it would cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position, raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests, and, importantly, negatively affect your wallet whether you are a welfare recipient, stock or bond investor, homeowner or currently employed.

1. Payments for programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and others, could be delayed, in full or in part, affecting the more than 70 million disabled or retired Americans who rely on timely monthly Social Security checks, and the more than 40 million people who receive government food assistance.
2. According to Moody's Analytics, the unemployment rate could increase to 5% were the U.S. government breaches the debt limit by only a few days and jump to 8% if were breach drags on for several weeks leaving 1.5 million Americans out of work.
3. According to Mark Zandi, Moody's chief economist, a debt default would spike interest rates further and likely spark a recession.
4. According to Jeff Tucker, a Zillow senior economist, it would cause home sales to plummet, mortgage rates to climb to as high as 8.4%, and mortgage bills to soar by over 20%.
5. According to Jonas Goltermann, a markets economist at Capital Economics, under a prolonged default scenario, stock prices would plummet by 20%, on average, wiping out about $10 trillion in household wealth and, even if the U.S. doesn’t default, the markets could fall sharply if lawmakers wait too long to act.
6. Any default would undermine U.S. Treasuries as an ultra-safe asset causing prices to plummet and demand to crater.

Make no mistake about it, a debt default by the government would adversely affect you in one way or another.

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