"This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this."

Huff Po:

"Eric, don't call my bluff. I'm going to the American people on this," the president said, according to both Cantor and another attendee. "This process is confirming what the American people think is the worst about Washington: that everyone is more interested in posturing, political positioning, and protecting their base, than in resolving real problems."

It sounds like Obama isn't going to back down. He's willing to go to the brink in order to get something meaningful passed. It's refreshing to see a Democrat display this amount of chutzpah. Just when I'm just about to give up on the guy he reminds me why I voted for him. This is an incredible gamble though, if we were to go into default we would experience a recession probably worse than the previous one. Obama realizes that if this were to happen that would be the end of his Presidency. But if he's going down he might as well take the Republicans down with him. I imagine this scares the GOP to death, Mitch McConnell admitted as much himself. It's either this or he just doesn't give a damn anymore and has given up on negotiating with the GOP. It's an admirable position though, its not often you see a politician sacrifice his political career for the health of the country. All I can say is I hope it works and the Republicans back down, otherwise its going to get ugly.