To illustrate Republican obstinacy over keeping the U.S. economy on track, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow compared them on Thursday to a nightmarish teenager threatening a parent right after being trusted to drive the family car.

“Your kid says ‘sweet,'” Maddow explained. “And you switch places, your kid grabs the wheel and then speeds toward the nearest cliff saying, ‘I swear I will kill us both! I swear I will drive this car over this cliff unless you raise my allowance.'”

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Even after being mollified and trusted again, Maddow argued, the teenager did the same thing the next time he got behind the wheel.

“He aims the car at the nearest brick wall,” she said, “And he guns it and he screams, ‘I swear I will drive this car right into this brick wall unless you extend my curfew. I will do it, I will kill us both!'”

Questioning whether such a child should ever be allowed to drive again, Maddow brought up House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) disagreeing with President Barack Obama over his decision not to employ a section of the 14th Amendment Pelosi argued gives him the right to unilaterally raise the federal debt ceiling.

“When House Democrats brought this up a couple of years ago, President Obama said he did not want to do it,” Maddow said. “He said Congress should be able to handle it. Congress cannot handle it.”

Watch Maddow hammer the GOP for putting more wrenches in the economy, aired Thursday on MSNBC, below.

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