'That's My Job': Lindsey Graham Defends 'Setting The Numbers' For Reconciliation As Budget Chair

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During debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) defended the numbers attached to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

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00:00I am using and yielding time off the bill.

00:05Without objection.

00:07Okay, thank you very, very much.

00:09So, the debate and eventual voting on the big, beautiful bill has begun.

00:16Hallelujah.

00:17It's taken a while for us to get here.

00:19We're going to have a debate worthy of a great country.

00:22We'll have what they think and what we think,

00:24and we're going to vote on this bill in the coming days,

00:28and I'm excited about that.

00:30I've worked a long time with my colleagues to get to where we are today,

00:36sort of the American people.

00:37The debate is beginning right now regarding the big, beautiful bill,

00:42and I'll tell you why that's good news for you,

00:45but let me take a little bit of time to talk about current policy versus current law.

00:50I know everybody's on the edge of their seat at home,

00:52but here's what I would tell you about numbers and budget chairmen.

00:56I'm not the first budget chairman.

00:58There have been those who came before me.

01:02In 2008, Chairman Kent Conrad, a really nice guy from North Dakota,

01:09used a new baseline in the budget so he could get the farm bill in the budget.

01:17And Jared Gregg, a really smart guy, former budget chairman, said,

01:23the chairman of the budget committee declared the new baseline under a new budget.

01:28The budget chairman has a right to do that.

01:31That's what I'm doing.

01:32I'm setting the numbers.

01:34The parliamentarian said, that's my job as budget chairman.

01:38The resolution we're operating under to get us here, we voted to make that the case.

01:43So we're not doing anything sneaky.

01:45We actually voted to give me the authority to do this, and it passed.

01:50But again, I'm not the first chairman to change a baseline for different reasons.

01:56One, to get the farm bill in.

01:58And on another occasion, Senator Sanders changed the baseline in 2022 when he was budget chairman

02:09under budget reconciliation to issue a budget rule allowing the numbers to change to get

02:17more money for Head Start.

02:19So Senator Sanders, as budget chairman, directed a new rule be written to get more money for Head Start.

02:28So don't tell me you've never done this before in terms of changing the baseline as budget chairman.

02:34The budget chairman under 312 sets the baseline.

02:39This has been acknowledged by Republicans and Democrats.

02:43The baseline has changed in the past based on the budget committee chairman's desire,

02:49one to get a farm bill in and the other to change the numbers, a new rule to get Head Start spending.

02:55So this has been done before.

02:58But I'll be the first to say that what we're doing here is historic in a good way.

03:04In 2017, we passed the Trump tax cuts.

03:10They're due to expire in December.

03:12Why is that?

03:13Before I got here, current law was the way to score or implement tax policy.

03:22After 10 years, the tax cuts expired.

03:26Current law.

03:27As budget chairman, I've decided to use current policy when it comes to cutting taxes.

03:35If you use current policy, they never expire.

03:39So the policies that were created in 2017 would not end in December.

03:45They would continue.

03:46And that's a good thing for the American people.

03:50That's a good thing for the economy because it gives you certainty.

03:54So I made a decision as budget chairman working with my colleagues to look at tax cuts,

04:00something important for the country, to give certainty to businesses and individuals

04:06and make sure after 10 years they don't arbitrarily go away and have a cliff.

04:11So I made that decision.

04:13My colleagues backed me up.

04:14And that's in the budget resolution governing the debate that we're here today.

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