Sen. Lindsey Graham is really, really worried that the baggers will primary him out of the Senate in 2014.
“In February or March you have to raise the debt ceiling. And I can tell you this, there is a hardening on the Republican side. We’re not going to raise the debt ceiling. We’re not going to let Obama borrow any more money or any American Congress borrow any more money until we fix this country from becoming Greece. And that requires significant entitlement reform to save Social Security and Medicare from bankruptcy. Social Security is going bankrupt in about 20, 25 years. Medicare is going bankrupt in 15 or 20 years. […]
“Yes, we will play that game, Mr. President, because it’s not a game. The game you’re playing is small ball. You’re talking about raising rates on the top 2% that would run the government for 11 days. You just got re-elected. How about doing something big that’s not liberal? How about doing something big that really is bipartisan? Every big idea he has is a liberal idea that drowns us in debt. How about manning up here, Mr. President and use your mandate to bring this country together to stop us from becoming Greece.”
Even Glenn Kessler gave that little blip three pinnochios, albeit framed with the usual “both sides do it” disclaimers. Of course, the whole speech is nonsense from start to finish.
Still, it’s always awesome to see how fast the Right can completely retool talking points. Not long ago they seized on a statement from the Congressional Budget Office that the Affordable Care Act will save $716 in Medicare costs, and screamed that the President was gutting Medicare. Now they’re screaming for him to “man up” and cut costs from Medicare.
I know they live in an alternative reality, but it would be nice if they’d stick to one alternative reality and not hopscotch from one fantasy realm to another as their mood dictates.
And if anybody needs to “man up,” it’s Graham. How about manning up and adopting some principles, Senator? How about putting the country ahead of your career? How about telling the baggers to go bag themselves? I know that’s an alien concept, but do work on it.