Mediaite – Speaker of the House John Boehner appeared onFox News Sunday and Chris Wallace grilled him on the seriousness of threats to shut down the government or to not raise the debt ceiling. Perhaps scared of “playing with fire,” Boehner agreed defaulting on the country’s debt would mean a financial disaster and claimed “I don’t think it’s a question that’s even on the table.”

Boehner also expressed no concern over his ability to deal with the emerging Tea Party caucus in the House and vowed not to curtail their attempts to pursue even more drastic spending cuts than what Republicans have already proposed. “My job is not to do what’s been done in the past and that’s to dictate what members will get to vote on,” and instead he plans to support the spending cuts that get the most support in the House.