Sen. Lindsey Graham: Obama Will Get 'Fight of His Life'

Speaking at a family owned printing company in Columbia on Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham minced few words in addressing the country’s fiscal troubles.

Scoffing at President Obama’s statement of refusal to negotiate over the debt ceiling, Graham called on the president to “lead in the way Ronald Reagan did when he worked with Tip O’Neill.”

It’s been reported that Obama is considering using the 14^th Amendment to circumvent Congress in the looming debt fight. That prospect was not welcomed by Graham. “He’ll be in for the fight of his life,” Graham said.

Though the Congress avoided going over the fiscal cliff last week, it still must address Sequestration and funding the government, which necessitates raising the debt ceiling.

Graham said both these potential crises could also be avoided with common sense budgeting.

Graham noted that he is willing to vote for the debt ceiling to be raised, but only if measures are taken to cut spending. He called for dollar for dollar cuts in spending and tax increases as a way to cope with the debt problems. Graham also said that seniors need to be means-tested benefits for Social Security and Medicaid and to the retirement age needs to be raised. Each of these moves by themselves would amount to substantial savings.

But in order for a deal to get done, Graham said there needs to be leadership from Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Utah, neither of whom, Graham noted, has passed a budget in three years. “Obama’s never run so much as a lemonade stand, and it shows,” Graham said.

Graham said he was not happy to vote for the fiscal cliff deal last week, but “to have done nothing would have amounted to destruction of the Defense Department as we know it.”

The decision to hold the press conference at a printing company was symbolic, Graham said, because our country is “spending money faster than it can print it.”

Graham also spoke about the nominations of Chuck Hagel and John Brennan to head the Defense Department and the CIA, respectively. He said Hagel’s views on Iran and Israel are “out of the mainstream. But he’ll have a chance to defend his views.”

Graham said he’s reluctant to proceed on Brennan’s nomination, or the nomination of anyone to lead the CIA, until he hears more about the agency’s role in the Benghazi tragedy.

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