WASHINGTON — It's not a pretty picture.
With the debt ceiling crisis looming, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) says if the United States goes into default, "the damage done would be draconian."
He says Hampton Roads, with its heavy concentration of military personnel and operations and retirees, would suffer greatly.
"Probably, there'd be very few regions in the country that would be harder hit than Hampton Roads because we have so many veterans, because so much military presence, because the federal government is such a large investor in the region," he said.
In fact, Old Dominion University, in its State of the Region Report last fall, noted that roughly one out of every four dollars flowing through the Hampton Roads economy is directly tied to federal spending.
Warner says the impact from a default would be felt instantly here.
"Should the government default, sailors don't get paid. Retirees don't get their Social Security checks, people go to get their Medicare and get turned away because the government's not paying its bills," he said.
The Bipartisan Policy Center says immediately at risk will be more than $20 billion in payments to Medicaid providers, $6 billion in federal salaries, $12 billion in veterans benefits, and $1 billion in SNAP benefits.