Lindsey Graham Is Pushing Us Into a Shutdown for the Pettiest Reason
Lindsey Graham is so furious that his phone records are being investigated that the South Carolina Republican may shut down the entire government.
Thursday evening, Graham denied support a bill agreed to by both Donald Trump and Senate Democrats that would have solidified 95 percent of funding for the year for federal agencies.
The remaining five percent makes up the Department of Homeland Security’s annual budget. After months of protests against ICE’s violent actions, Democrats successfully removed DHS funding from the larger bill. The new bill provides a two-week delay, giving Democrats time to formulate policy changes before agreeing to fund DHS.
Graham refuses to endorse the bill, not because of his love for DHS, but for a much stupider reason: He is annoyed by a provision that repeals a law allowing senators to get payments if they had their phone records seized by former special counsel Jack Smith.
As one of nine Republican lawmakers whose records were seized while Smith investigated Trump’s role in the Capitol riot, Graham could have sued his own employer and potentially collected millions of dollars of taxpayer money under the provision — an idea he appeared be very excited. Today, that provision (which has been criticized on both sides of the party as essentially legalized corruption) is gone, and Graham is would have irritated.
Graham will probably soon give in to his dear leader and agree to support the bill. But a government shutdown brought on by one of Trump’s biggest loyalists remains possible — and it’s kind of fun to imagine.
