It's become a daily occurrence for Dr. Mark Kroll at the University of Texas at Brownsville.
The UTB busines professor's eyes are glued to the news, closely monitoring the debt ceiling battle on Capitol Hill.
"I would suspect there would be a really strong temptation to continue to service the debt and not default, just stop paying our bills," Kroll said.
President Barack Obama is pushing congress to avoid a government shutdown in two weeks.
A group of bi-partisan senators called the "Gang Of Six" are proposing $4 trillion dollars in cuts to reduce the deficit, downsizing programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
Right now the "Gang Of Six" plan is drawing support from both parties, but it's complex, leaving many to wonder if this issue will be resolved by August 2nd.
If no agreement is made, that means no checks issued for social security, Medicare and Medicaid, for veterans, and interest rates would also go up.
Dr. Kroll fears --- failing to raise the debt ceiling could be catastrophic.
"Nobody knows for sure what would happen” said Dr. Kroll. “ My guess is it would really be bad, we don’t want to find out"
Texas State Rep. Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville) believes we are just now starting to see an economic recovery, not only here in Texas, but across the country.
Not addressing the debt crisis, he feels, could cause us to go in the opposite direction.
"I’m very concerned that we would see chaos in our financial community," Oliveira said.
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