Obama dropped the harsher rhetoric he has employed in the past against Wall Street. Gone were the references to "fat cats" and the "battalions of financial industry lobbyists descending on Capitol Hill."

President Obama repeated his position Monday that tax cuts should be extended for the middle class—"the people whose wages didn't rise"—but not the top earners because doing so would cost $700 billion.

President Obama told a town-hall meeting that stimulus measures his administration has taken have worked but the problems facing the economy will take a lot more time to solve.

Read the play-by-play of what the President said during his hour-long Town Hall event.

Green energy, getting banks to start lending again and the importance of information technology jobs—three issues that would have come up during the town hall, but didn't.

President Obama stayed on a “pro-growth” agenda and avoided attacking Wall Street, but held his ground on the Bush tax cuts and other policies, CNBC guests said.

The president kept his message pro-growth without attacking Wall Street, Cramer said, though he had opportunity do so on a number of occasions.

The president’s problems with the public when it comes to the economy are as simple as they are perplexing.

It's premature to call current Minority Leader John Boehner the next leader of the House of Representatives, the President says, and at election time, many Americans will recognize that GOP policies contributed to America's deficit problems and economic turmoil.

China's artificially low currency valuation gives it an unfair trade advantage, and the United States must continue to insist that trade is a "two-way street" with a fair trade relationship.

The administration will not disclose all of its options with regard to dealing with Iran, but the threat the company presents is very real, the President says.

It's a fair economic argument to insist individuals be allowed to default on unmanageable mortgage loans and lose their homes, but real families are at stake, the President says.

SkyBridge Capital Founder Anthony Scaramucci asks President Obama when Wall Street will cease to be the administration's whipping boy. The president insists the financial sector is not his personal whipping boy and has not been.

The administration has provided tax incentives that help businesses defray the cost of hiring and adding to their payrolls, the President says. And it may be open to the idea of a payroll tax holiday.

In the end, a certain amount of business regulation is going to be necessary, the President says, while the government cannot be overly meddling in private enterprise.

Skepticism about the government is a very American trait, the president says, but the Tea Party has misidentified where America's budgetary difficulties come from.

For the U.S. economy to work out of its current malaise, the government must continue to make long-term investments that will boost it, the President says.

Ending the tax cuts on America's wealthiest will help cut the deficit, but 60% of the U.S. budget consists of entitlements that leave the President little room for spending flexibility.