Obama Cleverly Uses CNBC Interview to Turn Wall St Against Boehner and the Tea Party

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President Obama went on CNBC today, and cleverly worked to ramp up the pressure on Speaker Boehner and the tea party by turning Wall Street against the party that they fund.

Video of the full interview:

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John Harwood of CNBC asked the president if Wall Street was correct to react calmly to the government shutdown.

Obama said:

No I think this time’s different.I think they should be concerned. I had a chance to speak to some of the financial industry who came down for their typical trip, and I told them that it is not unusual for Democrats and Republicans to disagree. That’s the way the Founders designed our government. Democracy’s messy, but when you have a situation in which a faction is willing potentially to default on US government obligations then we are in trouble. If they’re willing to do it now, they’ll be willing to do it later.

One thing that I often hear is, ‘Well, Mr. President even if they’re being unreasonable, why can’t you just do something that makes them happy now?” And I have to remind people, what I have to remind people is what we are debating now would keep the government open for 2 months. We would then be going through this exact same thing in the middle of Christmas shopping season, which I don’t think many businesses would be interested in. We saw what happened in 2011, and then we’d have go through it again six months from now, and six months after that. And one thing I know the American people are tired of, and I have to assume the vast majority of businesses are tired of is this constant governing from crisis to crisis, so in that sense, do we have to break that fever? Absolutely. We have to stop doing that.

President Obama wasn’t trying to scare Wall Street, but he did let them know what Republican behavior is going to cost them. Obama went on CNBC for a reason. He was intentionally reaching out to the financial sector to put heat on the House Republicans. The president didn’t target all House Republicans, just the faction of 80 that are insisting on getting rid of the ACA.

The walls are closing in on Boehner and the tea party. Obama knows that Boehner may not listen or care about anyone else, but he jumps when corporate America snaps their fingers. The president has made it very clear that he will not negotiate over the CR or the debt limit. The president’s message hasn’t changed. Republicans will get nothing in exchange for reopening the government.

President Obama and the Democrats are surgically cutting off the base of support for Republican Party. Obama has boxed Boehner and the tea party in. Speaker Boehner only has one option to get out of this. He has got to pass a clean CR and reopen the government.


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