Just hours after NRSC Chair Rick Scott said that he had no regrets about Republicans running on a midterm agenda to jeopardize Social Security and Medicare, top Senate Republican John Thune actually doubled down on Republicans’ threat to crash the economy to force cuts to key programs like Social Security and Medicare.

You can’t make this stuff up: Last night, No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Thune made clear that Republicans are so hellbent on trying to force cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare that they’re willing to tank the economy if they don’t get their way. 

Bloomberg: “Senate Republicans want to leverage the next US debt limit increase to force cuts in projected federal spending and changes to Social Security and other entitlement programs, the party’s No. 2 leader said.”

This came just hours after NRSC Chair Rick Scott put out a new op-ed defending his wildly unpopular midterm agenda — saying that he doesn’t regret running on a plan to jeopardize Social Security and Medicare, not even “one bit.”

Washington Examiner: “Yes, I put out a plan of ideas, and I don’t regret it one bit. Yes, one of them suggested sunsetting laws after five years — noting that if a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again. Washington has spent decades exploding the size of our government and wasting money, and it must be stopped.”

This isn’t anything new from the GOP. In September, top House Republican leaders promised that gutting Social Security and Medicare would be one of their “top priorities” in their plan to leverage the debt ceiling to force spending cuts if they took control.

Bloomberg Government: “Social Security and Medicare eligibility changes, spending caps, and safety-net work requirements are among the top priorities for key House Republicans who want to use next year’s debt-limit deadline to extract concessions from Democrats.”

Republicans’ economic plan is so backwards that even an economist from the conservative American Enterprise Institute warned that it could have potentially devastating consequences for our economy.

Semafor: “‘If the Republicans begin playing games with the debt ceiling and it looks like the United States might default on its obligations, there’ll be a huge bond sell-off,’ Desmond Lachman, a macroeconomic expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said.”

Voters have called this plan a total “betrayal” by the GOP.

Newsweek: “As soon as [Steve Scalise’s] interview began, [Fox News] host Shannon Bream… presented the lawmaker with a message from a concerned viewer, who characterized the GOP’s plan for Medicare as a potential ‘betrayal.’

‘He’s a Republican, he’s very worried about you cutting his Medicare,’ Bream said as she relayed the message she purported to have received on Twitter. ‘He says it’s a dealbreaker and a betrayal by the GOP.’”

We said it once and we’ll say it again: Republicans are completely hellbent on coming after Social Security and Medicare. That’s their real agenda.