Back in January, when Barack Obama announced that Bill Daley would be his new chief of staff, we wrote about the real reason the White House was suddenly getting more "pro business". It was not that Obama had a sudden shift. The idea was that in anticipation of some serious fights, there was an opportunity to separate the GOP from the business community.

Here's what we said:

The goal is really to marginalize the hardcore pro-austerity wing of the GOP -- the Tea Partiers, the Jim DeMint acolytes, and the debt ceiling stalwarts.

If you're Citigroup or JPMorgan or Caterpillar or Boeing or any other big US company, the last thing you want to see is the US fiscally retrench, while waiving around threats of default. That's about as anti- (big) business as it gets, especially if you're short-term focused.

The outspokenness of Jamie Dimon on the debt ceiling issue fits nicely in line with this.

And look at what Barney Frank told POLITICO:

“We have the leverage here,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). “There are obviously divisions in the GOP among the leaders and the people pursuing their dumb notions of linking [cuts] to the debt vote.

“In the end, the Republicans are not going to be able to withstand the pressure from the business community, the guys who finance their campaigns. … In the end, they have to do this.”

Got it? The Democratic playbook, which has been in effect since the beginning of the year, has been to make it clear that the hardcore austerity fans are not pro-business, and instead potentially disruptive.

Even the Chamber of Commerce is solidly on the Democrats side on this fight, applying pressure to the GOP.

All that being said, we don't think the Republicans are really that "pro-business." Beohner probably still fits the old stereotype, but not his rank and file.