As the nation races toward reaching the debt ceiling, House Speaker John Boehner will speak at the Economic Club of New York in a forum where he’s expected to take questions from top players in the financial industry.
The Ohio Republican will appear Monday night at the Hilton in Midtown Manhattan in front of a crowd sure to be quivering at the prospect of the nation defaulting on its credit, and wary of the GOP’s handling of the debt-limit vote.
To give a clue at the elite crowd Boehner will face, the club’s trustees include the president of the Bank of New York Mellon, top executives at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase, and David Koch of Koch Industries. The club describes its membership as “drawn from the top executive levels of business, industry and finance.”
The Economic Club’s website says that events are entirely focused on the speaking guest, and questions are unscripted.
“Each program includes a question period, in which questions are put by members of the Club specially selected in advance for that purpose and seated on the dais. Just as each speaker chooses what to say, each questioner chooses what to ask,” the website says of its events.
According to the Club’s website, the last time a member of Congress spoke there was in May 2008, when Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) addressed the group.
