Lindsey Graham warns fellow Republicans on defense spending caps
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a potential 2016 presidential contender, on Thursday issued a strong warning to his fellow Republicans to pass a budget resolution that replaces sequestration for the Defense Department.
“I will not be a Republican who votes for a final budget deal that spends less than Barack Obama. That would be hitting bottom for me. We’re not going to hit bottom with my vote,” he said during a Capitol Hill event hosted by the Foreign Policy Initiative.
{mosads}President Obama’s budget request for fiscal 2016 calls on Congress to eliminate sequestration by raising the defense cap by $38 billion and the non-defense spending cap by $37 billion.
Graham, who serves on the Senate Armed Services and Budget committees, said he and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) are considering a provision in the fiscal 2016 budget resolution, which is expected to be marked up this month, that creates a “deficit neutral reserve account.” The account could be used to spend more than is allowed under the 2011 budget deal that introduced the sequestration cuts.
He later clarified that the provision is not yet in the resolution.
He likened the idea to a “mini Simpson-Bowles deal” that would “allow us to close some deductions, reform the tax code to generate some revenue to buy back our defense capability.”
Simpson-Bowles was a budget proposal authored by former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles. That measure included a mix of tax hikes and entitlement cuts.
“And to those in my party who worship the tax code more than the Department of Defense, we’re going to have a struggle with each other,” Graham warned.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), a fiscal conservative, said Wednesday his budget blueprint couldn’t adjust sequestration budget caps alone.
“The question is, are there deductions and credits and policies in the tax code that are simply bad government that should be eliminated anyway, and would you be willing to eliminate some of that bad policy and take the money that’s given to the few at the expense of the many to save the Department of Defense? I hope the answer will be yes,” Graham said.
He also warned Democrats that the “lion’s share” of the savings would have to come from entitlement reform “that’s long overdue to begin with.”
GOP defense hawks, like Graham, have complained for years about the sequestration budget ceiling for the Pentagon.
The posturing has picked up in recent weeks with the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services panels and pro-defense GOP factions sending letters to the heads of the Budget panels asking for defense spending levels above the sequester caps.
Graham also turned his ire to the Republican House leadership.
“To my colleagues in the House: Republicans are in charge, the world is looking at you now as a Republican-led body as to where your priorities are. So, to the leadership of the House, where are your priorities?” he asked. “What kind of budget are you going to pass? Are you going to continue this race to the bottom in terms of defense capability? Are you going to wake up and become the party of Ronald Reagan again?”
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