Obama warns GOP

Obama praises Boehner, warns GOP

Unlike some members of his party, the speaker understood that in government, you don't always get what you want, Obama says. 

By Sarah Wheaton

President Barack Obama doesn’t know who the next House Speaker will be, but he had a clear message for that person: Shut down the government at your peril.

At a Rose Garden press conference on Friday, Obama said that he was caught off guard by of House Speaker John Boehner’s plans to resign at the end of October, learning the news as he emerged from meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Obama described Boehner as a "good man" who “has kept his word when he’s made a commitment. He is somebody who has been gracious and I think maybe most importantly, he’s somebody who understands that in government, in governance, you don’t get 100 percent of what you want but you have to work with people who you disagree with, sometimes strongly, in order to do the people’s business.”

And while he declined to “prejudge” whomever Republicans pick as their next leader, Obama did not predict substantial changes to the gridlocked nature of this divided government.

“It’s not as if there’s been a multitude of of areas where the House Republican caucus has sought cooperate previously. So I don’t necessarily think that there’s going to be a big shift,” Obama said.

“The one thing I will say is that my hope is there’s a recognition on the part of the next speaker — something I think John understood even though at times it was challenging to bring his caucus along -- that we can have significant differences on issues, but that doesn’t mean you shut down the government, that doesn’t mean you risk the full faith and credit of the United States,'' Obama said.

Obama said he hoped Congressional Republicans had “learned some lessons,” when a conservative bid to defund Obamacare led to a 17-day government shutdown.

Not only did it end up “really hurting the economy,” the president said, but also, “as I recall, it wasn’t particularly good for the reputation of the Republican Party.”

Obama invoked Pope Francis, who spoke to a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday at Boehner’s invitation, to call for Republicans to take a more cooperative approach.

“I would just ask members to really reflect on what His Holiness said, not in the particulars but in the general proposition that we should be open to each other, we should not demonize each other, we should not assume that we have a monopoly on the truth or on what’s right, that we listen to each other and that we show each other respect, and that we show regard for the most vulnerable in our society,” Obama said.