Graham fears debt limit bill defense spending means ‘the party of Ronald Reagan is dying’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
took aim at his
Republican
House
colleagues, saying the
defense spending
proposed in the
debt ceiling
deal is killing President Ronald Reagan’s GOP.

“To my House colleagues, I can’t believe you did this. To the speaker, I know you have a tough job. I like you, but the party of Ronald Reagan is dying,” Graham said on the Senate floor on Thursday.

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Graham and other defense hawks are threatening to hold up Senate passage of the legislation to raise the debt ceiling unless Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer
(D-NY) agrees to a supplemental defense bill later this year for Ukraine aid and other defense-related spending and taking up appropriations bills as a condition to moving debt bills more quickly.

“I will never let this happen again as long as I’m here, to let people negotiate behind closed doors and not tell me what they are doing on defense. I blame myself for not being more involved and more active,” Graham said. “In my wildest dreams, I never believed that the Republican Party would take the Biden budget that they’ve attacked for a year and celebrate it as fully funding.”

A supplemental defense bill is seen as a way around the $886 billion top-line number in
President Joe Biden
’s 2024 defense budget, which
Speaker Kevin McCarthy
(R-CA) agreed to as part of an agreement to raise the debt limit. Graham isn’t alone. Even Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell
(R-KY)
criticized the defense piece
of the agreement on Wednesday.

“I think it’s the worst part of the deal. The defense buildup begins and then peters out,” McConnell said during a press conference on Wednesday. “It is not as good as I would like, but if you look at the totality of the agreement, it should be supported.”

The 99-page
agreement
would limit overall national security spending in fiscal 2024 to $886 billion, which is roughly a 3% increase from current levels. In fiscal 2025, defense spending would be capped at $895 billion, a 1% increase from the previous year. The cuts are a point of contention for defense hawks who are advocating spending increases to deter Chinese aggression, with some arguing the Biden administration’s proposed $842 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2024 hamstrings the Pentagon while the Chinese continue to build up their military.

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Senate leaders are working to get the bill passed as soon as Thursday night, with votes on 10-12 amendments ahead of final passage, according to sources close to negotiations.