I heard that in the case of default, unemployment will be one of the first things to go.. very strange, but I wouldn't count on it entirely if congress fails to pass a budget.
It's absurd to me that a lot of Republicans are holding the world hostage with the threat of global economic meltdown just because they want to keep their tax loopholes. Honestly.. they're willing to cut social security and medicare/medicaid or even let the United States default just so they can keep screwing over Americans with their no-tax corporations.
A huge reason the U.S. and its citizens are so poor these days is because of the sickly tax revenue stream we've been seeing ever since Reagan's policies. People have no concept of just how astronomically LOW the tax rate currently is; ESPECIALLY for the RICH. Play time is over, millionaires. Time to pay your fair share. Or, you know, anything at all.
According to most sources I've read, congress only has one more shot at this. In about two more weeks, the United States will reach the debt ceiling and it will be unlawful to borrow any more money, at which point the U.S. will default and cause havok to the world economy. The treasury is already working all the black magic they can to prevent this. We are approaching the absolute hard limit unless congress moves to increase the debt ceiling in addition to delaying the budget again. I'm not sure how easy that would be to do.