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March 28, 2024

Reid: No bowing to ‘Tea Party anarchists’ on Obamacare

Harry Reid

Harry Reid

Sticks and stones may break bones, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just hopes his words are enough to get Republicans to back off Obamacare.

“We’re not going to bow to Tea Party anarchists who deny the mere fact that Obamacare is the law,” Reid said this morning.

That was just the start of it, though.

Reid used words like "fanatic" and "extremist" to describe Republicans threatening to hold up a budget until Congress votes to defund Obamacare and its exchanges, which open for enrollment in eight days.

“Are Republicans so intent on undermining President Obama and the signature health care law that they’re willing to inflict severe damage to our economy in the process?” Reid asked. “If Democrats don’t bow to every demand they have, we’re going to go right over the cliff...Americans will know exactly who to blame — Republican fanatics in the House and Senate.”

Reid was not directing his words at the entire GOP. He was more interested in pulling Republicans away from the Obamacare cliff by turning its members against each other.

“I see more of my moderate Republican colleagues stepping up to speak sense to an extremist element of their own party,” Reid said. “A few reasonable Republicans are wise enough to know that risking the nation’s economic recovery for the sake of a pyrrhic ideological victory would be another step toward a death knell for the Republican Party.”

“I say to the House and Senate Republicans who continue to deny reality...listen to the chorus all around you. Listen to what they’re saying,” Reid said. “Your conservative Senate colleagues urge you off this reckless course...What remains to be seen is whether my Republican colleagues on both sides of the capitol are wise enough to listen.”

The Senate today began debating the House-passed continuing resolution to fund the government past Sept. 30.

The Senate will all but certainly not pass the measure until the provisions defunding Obamacare are either replaced or removed.

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