During an interview on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” anchor Chris Wallace asked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) why Republicans were willing to “play politics” with raising the debt ceiling.
Partial transcript as follows:
WALLACE: But, you know, what we’re talking about here is something a lot more serious than the process to set up the debt vote. If you — you don’t raise the debt limit, the country defaults. If that happens, it tanks the markets. It has — it probably puts us in a recession. It means that things like Social Security checks and veterans benefits don’t go out.
GRAHAM: I understand all that.
WALLACE: Do you really want to play politics with that?
GRAHAM: Every time we raised the debt ceiling, we get something for it, generally speaking. I wanted to — to have some budget reforms. Nancy Pelosi, the last time we raised the debt ceiling on Trump’s watch, wanted more spending. What we said as a party is, we’re going to make them use the reconciliation process to raise the debt ceiling. The Democrats caused this problem. They needed to fix it. If you do it — if you help them, you’re legitimizing this spending. So it really is not about the process as much as it’s about keeping your word. We let a lot of people down. Senator McConnell’s been a great leader on many things, but we’re going into an election cycle where the wind’s to our back. We can’t do this again.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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