Lindsey Graham Town Hall tour hits North Charleston

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In spite of a stormy night in North Charleston, a full house crowd gathered at North Charleston City Hall for a Town Hall meeting with Senator Lindsey Graham.

The crowd was clearly partisan, with many Republican Party and Tea Party activists from across the Lowcountry in attendance. When Senator Graham asked for show of hands for any Democrats, none were raised, then he charged into a 90 minute question and answer open-mike session with the audience.

The first focus on Graham’s discussion focused on fiscal issues. He warned that the Super Committee’s failure to meet its charge of identifying items to cut would result in across-the-board cuts which would threaten national security. He cautioned that his top priority is “you start with the Defense Department. That’s our primary goal“.

Advocated “Cut, Cap, and Balance”, arguing that a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution was necessary as “any deal Congress can write, Congress can break”. Pointing out he was one of twelve GOP Senators who supported it and that polling showed Cut, Cap and Balance had overwhelming support from voters, predicting the end result would be $2.4 trillion of new borrowing, warning the GOP “ended up bidding against itself”.

When asked what his priorities would be as President, he argued that, in addition to fiscal reform, he would work to address the nation’s energy demands by expanding off-shore drilling, allowing the permitting of numerous nuclear power plants and putting incentives to develop new kinds of energy.

John Steinberger of the S.C. Fair Tax sought Graham’s support for the Fair Tax proposal. While he said he would not be opposed to tax reform, he argued the “most likely form of tax reform will be a flat tax” in which the income tax core would be streamlined to reduce the number of income tax brackets and tax deductions, offering to vote for the Fair Tax in return for support for Flat Tax in order to enact whichever plan had the most support.

Graham turned his fire on the power of the bureaucracy, describing the NLRB as the worst offender, calling the department as “the ultimate example of the unelected bureaucrats taking action to destroy blogs”. He also took aim at the federal government practice of appointing “czars” who oversee large federal programs without being subject to confirmation powers.

Arguing that” numbers alone don’t matter” Graham said enacting reform legislation required reform advocates to “get the numbers, passion and principle combined”. Pointing to numbers on his chart, he said “if we make it about numbers, not personalities, we win”.

When asked where he would make cuts, Graham argued the single biggest item that needed to be addressed was entitlement reform, telling the audience they “could cut out every bit of waste and still not get ten percent of what you need”. He praised Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, telling the audience “if this is who represents the Tea Party, you’re in good shape”, calling the Kentucky Senator one of the “most practical guys I know” on fiscal issues and reforming Medicaid.