On Sunday’s broadcast of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told host Bob Schieffer he thinks the country is about to go over the fiscal cliff — and that President Barack Obama knows it.
“I think we’re going over the cliff,” Graham said. “It’s pretty clear to me they made a political calculation. This offer doesn’t remotely deal with entitlement reform in a way to save Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security from imminent bankruptcy. It raises $1.6 trillion on job creators that will destroy the economy, and there are no spending controls.”
Graham went on to propose that revenue could be raised through capping deductions.
“The president’s plan when it comes to entitlement reform is just, quite frankly a joke,” Graham continued. “So I don’t think they’re serious about finding a deal. John Boehner is serious about revenue. He’ll get a lot of pushback, but Republicans will rally around John Boehner about limiting deductions to raise somewhere between $700 and $800 billion in revenue. And I bet you this — if you took the president’s plan and put it on the floor of the House and the Senate, he would get very few votes for his plan.”
Entitlement reform, Graham said, is necessary to avert economic disaster in the U.S.
“We’re becoming Greece because of out-of-control entitlement spending. There’s no age adjustment for Medicare and Social Security. There is no means testing in the president’s plan. We should do what Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill did — adjust the age for retirements, a means test benefit, do it together, and Republicans should put revenues on the table. The president’s plan does nothing but damn us to becoming Greece.”