Reid slams GOP's 'Thelma & Louise' plan to shut down government and kill Obamacare

Sen. Majority Leader (D-NV) on Monday compared Republicans like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) to film characters "Thelma & Louise" for their plan to shut down the government if President Barack Obama's health care law was not defunded.

"President Obama has been clear and I have been clear, any bill that defunds Obama and his health care plan is dead on arrival in the Senate," Reid explained on the Senate floor. "Understand that there's an anarchy movement that's afoot... But we're not going to bow to tea party anarchists who deny the mere fact that Obamacare is the law. We will not bow to tea party anarchists who refuse to accept the Supreme Court rule that Obamacare be constitutional. And we will not bow to tea party anarchists in the House or in the Senate who ignore the fact that President Obama was overwhelmingly re-elected a few months ago."

"This week the Senate will act as quickly as tea party Republicans will allow," he continued. "Once the Senate has acted, House Republicans will face a choice of whether to pass a clean continuing resolution or shut down the federal government. So, the question: Are extremist Republicans really willing to shut down the government?"

Reid pointed out one Republican senator had called the idea of a government shutdown to defund Obamacare "the dumbest idea he's ever heard."

"Two dozen Senate Republicans have spoken out against this foolhardy plan to to drive the economy off the cliff," he said. "This 'Thelma & Louise' style just isn't getting the attention of the American people in a positive tone."

"If Democrats don't bow to every demand they have, they want to go right over the cliff."

In the final scene of the 1991 film "Thelma & Louise," the main characters Thelma Dickinson and Louise Sawyer drive their 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible into the Grand Canyon instead of surrendering to the FBI.

Last year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Democrats of using "Thelma and Louise economics" to drive the country "right off the cliff."

Watch this video from C-SPAN, broadcast Sept. 23, 2013.