Boehner to visit financial executives as debt-limit fight continues

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is heading to Wall Street as lawmakers in D.C. continue to search for an agreement on raising the federal debt ceiling and reining in the national deficit.

On Monday, Boehner will appear before the Economic Club of New York in Manhattan, where he might have to field some tough questions from financial gurus worried about how far lawmakers will push the debt-limit debate.

Although Boehner and other GOP leaders have acknowledged the $14.3 trillion debt limit must go up, he and other Republicans are still demanding major concessions before voting for an increase.

However, the financial experts that litter Wall Street have been essentially unanimous in telling Congress to not play games with the debt limit, echoing warnings from the White House that a default on U.S. debt would be an economic catastrophe.

Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, said in March that it would be "crazy" to not raise the debt limit.

"This chatter about not meeting our obligations, I just don't understand it," he said at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "It's a moral obligation to ourselves. ... They should know that the United States is good for its money. Period."

The Manhattan group says it gathers members from "top executive levels of business, industry and finance."

Executives from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are listed among the group's trustees, as well as David Koch of Koch Industries and William Dudley, the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Economic Club touts itself as "nonpolitical, nonpartisan and nonprofit."

"It exists solely to provide a serious, structured forum in which selected top leaders ... can address its members and their invited guests," the group says on its website.

Boehner marks the latest in a number of heavy-hitting economic policymakers to appear before the club. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro have all made appearances there in the last few years.

Speakers invited by the club for their "distinction and timeliness" will deliver remarks, and then field questions from those in attendance.

"Just as each Speaker chooses what to say, each questioner chooses what to ask," the group says.

And it is clear from its website that Boehner will be the main event of the evening.

"We have no entertainment, no presentations, and conduct no extraneous business," it states. "The event's entire focus is on the Guest of Honor and the speaking program."

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