South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham surprised many this morning on Meet The Press when he said he liked some of the provisions in President Obama’s expected budget.
President Obama is expected to release have dinner with several Republican legislators next when he releases his new budget. Graham, who has shown openness to raising billions in new revenues in exchange for some austerity measures, is expected to be among the Senators that join the president for the dinner. One must remember, though, that the president’s budget is has no real teeth and is a blueprint on where to spend in a way that is similar to the House and Senate budgets.
Nonetheless, Graham told NBC’s David Gregory that he thinks the president is making a good faith effort to address entitlement reforms in his budget proposal. “There are nuggets of his budget that I think are optimistic. It’s overall a bad plan for the economy,” said Graham.
The changes to entitlement programs that Obama is proposing, according to Graham, would extend the life of the programs and increase revenue for the government.
“The president is showing a bit of leg here. This is somewhat encouraging. His overall budget isn not going to make it but he’s make a step forward in the entitlement reform process that would allow guy like me to talk about flatening the tax code and generating more revenue,” said Graham.
Watch clip below via NBC
