The Metros That Sorely Need the U.S. Government to Keep Paying Its Bills

With any luck, these maps will be moot by the end of the day. The U.S. Congress will work out a last-ditch solution to raise the debt ceiling and re-open the government. And the risk of default will come off the table (for now).

While we wait, though, it's important to note, as Mark Muro and Siddharth Kulkarni have over at the Brookings Institution, that the consequences of a default would be felt unevenly across the country. If the U.S. ever does default, it's unclear how and when Social Security checks would be paid, or whether the federal government would be able to prioritize some payments over others as the money starts to run out. But we do know that some metro populations rely much more heavily than others on resources that come from the federal government, whether that's in the form of direct paychecks, Social Security payments, monthly allotments of food stamps, veterans' benefits, or subsidies to help pay for infant nutrition.