Graham pushes back at ‘no taxes’ pledge

Sen. Lindsey Graham says he is willing to violate Grover Norquist’s “no taxes” pledge if Democrats will agree to entitlement program cuts.

Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican, says he’s still opposed to increasing tax rates but that he supports capping deductions to help the federal government balance its books and avoid a fiscal disaster.

“I agree with Grover we shouldn’t raise rates, but I think Grover is wrong when it comes to [not capping] deductions,” Mr. Graham said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Mr. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, the group behind the anti-tax pledge that has been signed by most Republicans on Capitol Hill, has warned that lawmakers who have talked of the need for higher tax rates will have to answer to their constituents.

But Mr. Graham said that with the federal government facing a debt of more than $16 million, increasing tax revenues is a reasonable and logical option.

“When you’re $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making each other is to avoid becoming Greece,” the senator said. “I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country — only if Democrats will do entitlement reform.”

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