If Biden chooses to default on the $31.4 trillion debt, it’s because he chose not to use ample revenue to pay interest on the debt.
https://dailytorch.com/2023/05/if-biden-chooses-to-default-on-the-31-4-trillion-debt-its-because-he-chose-not-to-use-ample-revenue-to-pay-interest-on-the-debt/AMP
If the U.S. defaults on the debt on June 1, it will be because President Joe Biden chose not to make principal and interest payments on U.S. Treasuries out of existing revenue, for which there is more than ample revenues to service and refinance up to the current debt ceiling limit, $31.4 trillion. While gross interest owed on the debt in 2023 is $897 billion there is more than ample revenue at the U.S. Treasury to meet those obligations: some $4.8 trillion of taxes collected annually, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. There would still also enough revenue to meet Social Security ($1.346 trillion), Medicare ($821 billion), Medicaid ($608 billion) and defense spending ($800 billion). Between the gross interest and these programs, that’s about $4.47 trillion out of the $4.8 trillion of revenue. That is, if President Joe Biden chose to make payments to them on a continued basis while he and Congress were still negotiating an increase in the debt limit.