Only Treasury can't prioritize, it seems

Ian Katz from Reuters writes:

In 2011, the Treasury repeatedly rejected suggestions that it could use prioritization to make some payments while skipping others. [Chris Krueger, senior policy analyst at Guggenheim Securities LLC in Washington, whose Dec. 5 research note helped spur interest in the idea of issuing a 1 trillion dollar platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling] said he doesn’t think the U.S. would default on bonds. After that, deciding whom to pay is like “picking your favorite child.” “Prioritization is a massive political problem,” he said. “Do you pay air traffic controllers? Do you pay prison guards? Do you pay Social Security? Do you pay the troops? It’s an impossible political question.”

In other words, whereas families and businesses must prioritize their expenditures and cut back when their expenses exceed their income, the United States government is above such considerations.