Government Shutdown, Social Security | featured news

Democrats backed away from their demand for higher taxes on millionaires as part of legislation to extend Social Security tax cuts for most Americans on Wednesday as Congress struggled to clear critical year-end bills without triggering a partial government shutdown.

If the government can't pay all its bills come Wednesday, odds are it will pay bondholders. Social Security and Medicare recipients will be high on the must-pay list, too. Likely losers: federal workers in jobs deemed non-essential, private contractors and state and local governments....

A federal shutdown looming Friday would stop processing of paper income tax filings to the IRS – at the height of tax season – and throw into question how cargo will be processed at the nation’s ports of entry and whether new claims for Social Security benefits will be authorized.

Social Security checks would still go out. Troops would remain at their posts. Furloughed federal workers probably would get paid, though not until later. And virtually every essential government agency, like the FBI ...