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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., just checkmated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a brutal move in the fight for the border wall.
Earlier this week, Graham had dinner with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and a few other senior administration officials in Washington.
At the dinner, Graham reportedly upped the ante in the fight with Pelosi over the border wall with a brand new idea for leverage.
Graham reportedly told Trump to checkmate the Democrats and attach funding to the wall with raising the debt ceiling, another major fight Congress will have in early March.
Threatening to have the U.S. default on its debt obligations should send both Republicans and Democrats into panic mode and motivate them even more to reach a deal on the spending bill.
Here’s more context from CNN:
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the President, told CNN that he spoke with Trump at dinner Monday night about “what would a good deal look like” as lawmakers attempt to negotiate an agreement to stave off another government shutdown — and floated the possibility that raising the debt limit could be part of the negotiation.Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina, said he is “hopeful we can solve more than one problem” and added “I think the President understands we need to raise the debt ceiling. It comes due in March, so why not just expedite things.”Taking such a step would amount to a dramatic move by the President: He could dare Democrats to block funding for the border wall and risk sending the country into default in the process. Graham said agreeing to one big package could clear the decks of the thorny issues facing Congress in the weeks ahead.“His wall money is necessary. His barrier money,” Graham said. “We’ve got to raise the debt ceiling in March. So Mnuchin was there telling us about that. We’ve got to come up with a budget agreement. If you want to continue to get the military refurbished and rebuild it, then we need to end the last two years of sequestration.”He added, “so there’s a package we could put together that would solve several problems. My thought is while we’re talking about all these things that are coming due pretty soon, let’s think bigger rather than smaller.”
Trump signed a continuing resolution last Friday that will only keep the government open until Feb. 15.
Congressional committees are currently working together to create a plan that they believe both sides would support.
Trump has made it clear that he wants at least $5 billion for the border wall, so it’s likely that the committees are trying to include things in the spending bill that would also satisfy Democrats.
Graham is arguing that Trump should attach funding to the wall with raising the debt ceiling because Congress must address that by the first week of March.
It would essentially connect two major pieces of legislation into one major package and avoid a fight on the border wall and then another one on the debt.
Doing this could save everyone time, energy, and resources, which would give Democrats less leverage in the negotiations.
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