WASHINGTON — With less than 72 hours before the government shuts down, President Obama and Democratic leaders refused to negotiate with Republicans whom they branded as “extremists” and “anarchists.”
Obama and his allies amped up their rhetoric to put more pressure on the GOP-led House after the Senate passed a bill to avert a shutdown, stripping out a Republican measure to defund ObamaCare and tossing it back to the lower chamber.
The president accused Republicans of “political grandstanding,” and he ruled out negotiating over ObamaCare as part of the spending bill or raising the debt limit before the US runs out of credit Oct. 17.
“We’re not going to do this under the threat of blowing up the entire economy,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called conservatives “anarchists” who wanted to close the government.
“The Republican Party has been infected by a small but destructive faction that would rather tear down the house our founders built than govern from it,” he said.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) rolled back the clock 150 years to warn that the nation was headed for a situation “every bit as dangerous” as the Civil War.
Harkin said a showdown was coming just like in “High Noon,” where the clock ticks down to a tense street duel.
On Thursday, Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer compared House Republicans to suicide bombers.
“What we’re not for is negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest,” Pfeiffer said.
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner shot back at Obama: “Grandstanding from the president, who refuses to even be a part of the process, won’t bring Congress any closer to a resolution.”
Boehner (R-Ohio) has vowed to amend the bill with another swipe at ObamaCare and send it back to the Senate.