"Listen, as I told the president last week, the more members that we engage in this process, I think, the better off we are, for a couple of reasons," the Ohio Republican said.

Boehner pointed out "here are a lot of people with good ideas around this Congress, both in the House and the Senate. And secondly, if you're ever going to pass a major bill that will begin to address our spending problem, we're going to grow this support, and it's going to have to be an organic process. And so I think it's a hopeful sign, and maybe something'll come of it."

Is the president trying to rally Republicans without the leadership?

No, Boehner said. "I don't feel like the president's going around me. You look at all the presidents I've worked with in the years that I've been here -- these presidents have engaged the leaders and members on an ongoing basis for some time.

"And I frankly think it's a somewhat hopeful sign that the president, now in his second term, is beginning to understand that you've got to have -- even the leaders have to have support of the members," the speaker said.

This is way Congress has often worked. "If you look at regular order, bills come through committee, where there's a process and the building support at the committee level and bringing them to the floor, and you all write about what happens in committees, and more members understand it, and it is an organic process to move a bill through each chamber," he said.