MSNBC's Joy Reid says the GOP is committing 'economic terrorism:' 'We don't negotiate with terrorists'
House Republicans have proposed a balanced budget amendment ahead of hitting another debt ceiling
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MSNBC’s Joy Reid claimed Republicans are guilty of "economic terrorism" ahead of the latest debt ceiling vote on Wednesday’s "The ReidOut."
The nation is set to reach its statutory debt limit of $31.38 trillion on Thursday, forcing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to take "extraordinary measures" to stave off default until June. This will also lead Congress to once again vote on whether or not to raise the debt ceiling in June.
Ahead of this decision, House Republicans have criticized the federal government’s massive spending and have suggested not voting to raise the debt ceiling until spending cuts can be implemented, proposing a balanced budget amendment in the meantime.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MSNBC host Joy Reid accused Republicans of enacting "economic terrorism" on Wednesday. (MSNBC)
Reid, along with her guest former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, attacked Republicans over this suggestion, insisting that the GOP is only interested in cutting "rich people’s taxes." The MSNBC host went as far as to claim the House Republicans were committing "economic terrorism."
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"There is a reason we have a saying in the United States. We don’t negotiate with terrorists. This is economic terrorism. Putting a gun to the head of the American economy in order to sock it to the poor and the elderly. It’s unchristian. I’ll put it that way. And they claim to be the defenders of the faith," Reid said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Reich, in particular, accused the Republicans of wanting to get rid of Social Security and Medicare and using the debt ceiling vote as a means to do so.
The United States will reach its statutory debt limit on Thursday. (iStock)
"They know these programs are enormously popular. So what will they do? They’ll use this debt ceiling. It sounds to Republicans – well, of course, you need to have a debt ceiling. Actually, what they’re doing is creating huge potential problems for everybody because they will ultimately only raise the debt ceiling if they get their way. And what does that mean? What does that mean? It means cuts in programs that everybody counts on, or it means that our credit is downgraded, and we have to pay billions more to borrow more money. I mean this is insane. There should be no negotiating at all with hostage takers," Reich said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Reid and various guests on her show have either compared Republicans to terrorists or outright suggested that the party is a front for terrorism. DNC and DCCC adviser Kurt Bardella argued on August that the GOP was "basically a domestic terrorist cell operating in America."
In 2021, Reid suggested that Republicans were, at the very least, terrorist sympathizers.
Congress is set to vote on whether or not to raise the debt ceiling once again in June. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"If that is the case, that makes Republicans at this point terrorist sympathizers, and willingly so," Reid said. "People like [McConnell] are willing to support terrorism in exchange for power. Go back everyone and read the way former Confederate soldiers behaved back then in the 1870’s through the 1920’s. It’s exactly the same way they’re behaving right now."