Graham Discusses Entitlement Reform, Avoiding Sequestration

I said time is running out only four days left until those eighty five billion dollars in forced across the board budget cuts go into effect let's

talk about the impact of chances of a compromise we're joined by senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina senator

thanks him for coming and I love the set nnj very thank you very much a part so the defense department hundreds

I think the LOL as a big deal Republicans are not going to raise revenue to pay for sequestration %HESITATION

and I don't really believe that we can do anything in the short term savers grabbing immune grace tax yeah eliminating

deductions and loopholes count me in for that but put the money on the debt I don't say you're saying there has to be a big a

big deal a grand bargain entitlement reform and tax reform says but you can't do that for days now

so sequestration is going to happen hopefully the pressure from sequestration will wake us up to the big deal we

don't need new taxes to run the government we need new taxes to get out of debt I ask about the impact

of sequestration or these forced budget cuts as we prefer to call them because it the term means nothing to our viewers listen

to out your fellow Republican a Tom Coburn he was on fox yesterday talking about how some Republicans thing the

impact of sick of of these budget cuts is exaggerated exaggerated listen the so what sequestration is it's a terrible way to cut spending I

don't disagree with that but not cut two and a half percent of the total budget over

year when it's twice the size it was ten years ago give me a break but from what I've heard from you in the past you

think that these cuts would be very damaging especially to defensive do you agree with some covers of this is that

the president's kind of blowing this out of proportion will just sell how bad it will be taken forty two and a half billion dollars at the defense department %HESITATION

and if you don't if you exempt personnel has got to come out of modernization readiness that means you'd have to cancel contracts that

would have the ripple effect so a ten year six hundred billion dollar cut the defense would be devastating if

you start it is hard to stop it and once you start but it is hard to stop it and once you start you

have to start canceling contracts and as you say laying people off interrupting modernization programs if you're leaving the personnel cost

which are the larger out of the mix by presidential decree the only thing left have to cut is modernization in

readiness so I like Tom Coburn but from the defense perspective erotica for ninety nine years right here's

an idea eighty five billion dollars you know you save it very quickly with the defense department as it get out of Afghanistan this

year instead of next year yeah we're spending eighty eighty eight billion dollars this year to maintain what sixty thousand troops if

there if you pull out of the end of this year as opposed to the end of two thousand fourteen I don't know the longer it's going that much of a difference are