The press conference continues.
POTUS notes the CR would merely re-open gov at level of funding cuts that Dems have long opposed as insufficient for job growth.
— @AriMelber
11:44 AM PT: When the international community hears that maybe default wouldn't be that bad, "it probably makes them nervous. It makes me nervous.... It's out of touch with reality."
11:47 AM PT: The litigation that would ensue if he did use the14th amendment, or use the trillion dollar coin, would damage confidence, would still damage our credit. So don't expect any threats ensuing from the White House of resolving the crisis without Congress (though maybe he shouldn't be taking that off the table right now?).
11:50 AM PT: Re: new case in front of SCOTUS on campaign finance.
This could be as bad as CU. It shuts ordinary Americans out of the process, having millionaires and billionaires single-handedly paying for campaigns. We should all be bound by rules. "There aren't a lot of functioning democracies around the world that work this way."
11:55 AM PT: Q: Does China benefit from the chaos in Washington? What damage is this doing internationally? Specifically an Asian trade deal that Obama wasn't there to seal.
O: We don't know for sure, but "I should have been there." But world leaders understood the priority of the whole world is that government reopens and we don't default. "We continue to be the one indispensable nation.... They care about the security environment we help maintain.... It's not as if they've got other places to go. They want us to be there and they want to work with us.... If they're going to close a deal, they don't want to do it by phone."
11:58 AM PT: "We can't do this every three months." We had one shutdown, and Gingrich and the GOP recognized we can't do it this way. It took on a sense of normal, Democratic process. We already went through this in 2011 and with the fiscal cliff. "We've got to stop repeating this process.... At some point we've got to break these habits and understand that in negotiations there is give or take and you don't engage in hostage-taking to get your way." And get over the histrionics about Obamacare destroying the republic already.
12:04 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): On today's Republican announcement of a "supercommittee," Obama says either you're having a good give and take or you're not. And obviously he doesn't think we are. Says the motivation is Boehner and Company holding out for a negotiation in theory but it really means Republicans give nothing, Democrats make concessions and that's called compromise.
12:10 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): Obama says he's "happy to talk about" fixes for Obamacare with Republicans, but he's not going to gut it. Shocking news.
12:15 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): Obama asked why he won't sign piecemeal bills that House GOP has passed (doesn't mention they haven't been passed in Senate). President says they're passing them because of political pressure and that the "shotgun approach" doesn't work because not everything gets a lot of attention like national parks and so on.
12:19 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): Regarding 2011 negotiations on debt ceiling, Obama said he entered them in good faith with John Boehner and tried to meet him halfway ... said they came fairly close to a deal (and that he still tells Boehner he should have taken the deal offered back then) but that GOP didn't feel like they had to compromise. Obama "would have thought they would have learned the lesson from that" near default and that's why he won't negotiate this time on the debt ceiling. Reiterates that he's very open to compromise but that threatening default is not acceptable. And that he's "not budging."