Graham To Support Senate Agreement to Reopen the Government

Statement

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today voted to support the Senate agreement to reopen the federal government and avoid the first-ever default on the federal debt.

"To say we as Republicans left a lot on the table would be one of the biggest understatements in American political history. We could have done much, much better. Unfortunately, given where we now find ourselves, this agreement was the best Senator McConnell could do. By the time we got to this point, we were playing poker only holding a pair of twos.

"Today's agreement is far from great news but brings to an end, at least temporarily, a disaster. It stops the bleeding and gives us a chance to regroup.

"On the positive side, the agreement preserves the spending caps and makes modest changes to protect taxpayers from what will be rampant fraud in Obamacare income verification procedures.

"On the negative side, we did nothing to address the long-term drivers of our national debt.

"I'm also very disappointed the agreement did not require every Member of Congress to participate in Obamacare. I will work with Senator Vitter to make sure Congress and the President have to live under this disaster of a law, just like every other American.

"I'm glad this chapter is coming to a close but make no mistake, there are no winners here. President Obama was AWOL when it came to leadership. Democrats in the Congress constantly moved the goalposts and were focused only on scoring political points. And as Republicans, we overplayed our hand.

"I hope we learn from the past few weeks. The problems with Obamacare will now be out in the open once this agreement is passed into law and the Republican Party still has an opportunity in 2014 because every Democrat owns this terrible idea called Obamacare."

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