Thursday night on All In with Chris Hayes: House Republicans are holding America’s economic future hostage, and now they have written a ransom note with their demands. According to a wish list circulating around the capitol, House GOPers want a delay in implementing Obamacare, cuts to public health programs, approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, and a slew of other conservative reforms Democrats are unlikely to embrace, in exchange for a debt ceiling increase. The Republican plan would allow the debt limit to be raised just enough to keep the government running into next year. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, will join Chris Hayes to talk about the debt ceiling debacle.
Chris will also talk with Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina and Sam Seder, host of The Majority Report, about the President’s speech in Maryland Thursday promoting his health care law. Obama spoke strongly against Congressional Republicans’ antics trying to prevent the Affordable Care Act from going into effect. “I have to say no Congress before this one has ever, ever in history been irresponsible enough to threaten default, to threaten an economic shutdown, to suggest America not pay its bills just to try to blackmail a president into giving them some concessions on issues that have nothing to do with the budget,” the president said to a group of students at Prince George’s Community College.
Also Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iran’s Foreign Minister in what was the highest-level direct contact between the two countries in six years. The newly elected Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has signaled his country may take a more moderate position on its nuclear program and its relationships with the West. Hooman Majd, NBC News Contributor, and Ann Curry, NBC News International Correspondent, will join Hayes to talk about the latest developments in this complicated relationship.
Later, Hayes will discuss how the Ayn Rand economic philosophy that argues for exempting the top earners from paying taxes is detrimental to the U.S. economy.
Plus: Marissa Alexander, a Florida woman sentenced to 20 years in jail for firing a warning shot during an argument with her abusive husband, won a big victory Thursday when an appeals court granted her a new trial. Many people were outraged at Alexander’s harsh sentence, especially when another Florida resident, George Zimmerman, was acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin by arguing self-defense.
Rachel Simon
Rachel Simon is a writer and editor based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of “Pickleball for All: Everything but the ‘Kitchen’ Sink.” Her work has been published in The New York Times, Glamour, Vulture, Teen Vogue and more. You can find her at @rsimon113.