White House warns of state and local government funding cuts without debt ceiling increase
CBSN
The White House is warning state and local governments that the consequences for them will be dire if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling and the U.S. goes into default.
In a memo, the White House said that if the U.S. can no longer pay its obligations and defaults, "billions of dollars in state aid and state-run but federal funded programs could be halted."
The memo comes as Republicans insist they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling, while the White House is urging Congress take a bipartisan vote to do so. The Treasury Department estimates that borrowing authority will expire in October, after which the U.S. will not be able to pay its bills.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.