Debt Ceiling

If Congress doesn't pass legislation to raise the debt ceiling, we're told that we will be hitting the current legal limit somewhere around August 2.  At that point, two apparently conflicting things must happen.  First, the Federal government can't incur more debt (at least, it can't incur a greater amount of new debt than the amount of old debt that is retired/paid off).  Second, the government is required to incur certain expenditures, the sum total of which is in excess of current revenues.  Something has to give, and I assume that the President and the Executive branch of the government has the power and authority--the right--to choose which expenditures to make and which to defer or otherwise refuse to make.

Here are some suggestions:

1.  Stop paying the salaries of members of Congress and their staffs.  I get no amusement from the thought of anyone being laid off, and realize that for some of these people, this will be a financial hardship.  But there's no reason why members of Congress should be immune from the effects of the recession and it would, perhaps, do some of them good to personally experience unemployment.

2.  I believe that a significant portion of Federal expenditures are in the form of payments to the states.  How about stopping payments to those states whose Congressional delegations voted against an increase in the debt ceiling?  (Yes, I'm talking about Republican delegations.)  Let the consequences of their vote be visited upon their own states.  Similarly, let the Federal Government stop funding projects that are located in these same states.

Is this Constitutional?  I have no idea.  Offensive as the notion of discriminating among states based on their political leanings seems to be, at least at first blush, I'm not sure what part of the Constitution would be implicated by this.  And, if the Administration is forced to pick and choose among its various financial commitments, there certainly seems to be some justice to the notion that the states that voted to put us in this dilemma should suffer more of the consequences of that decision.