Another Sunday, another interview with Lindsey Graham threatening the full faith and credit of the United States of America if he doesn't get his way and stick it to senior citizens with cuts to our social safety nets: Lindsey Graham: I Will Destroy America’s Solvency Unless The Social Security Retirement Age Is Raised:

Although official Washington is currently fixated on the so-called “Fiscal Cliff,” the biggest threat to American prosperity is the debt ceiling, which must be raised in February to prevent economic catastrophe. If Republicans refuse to reach a deal on the so-called cliff, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that they will spark a new recession in 2013. But if Republicans block action on the debt ceiling, they will make that potential recession look quaint. Without raising the debt ceiling, the United States will be forced to embrace austerity so severe it will lead to “a bigger GDP drop than that experienced during the Great Recession of 2008.”

But in an interview on Fox News Sunday this morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) threatened to oppose this must-pass bill unless Social Security benefits are taken away from millions of future retirees:

I’m not going to raise the debt ceiling unless we get serious about keeping the country from becoming Greece, saving Social Security and Medicare [sic]. So here’s what i would like: meaningful entitlement reform — not to turn Social Security into private accounts, not to take a voucher approach to Medicare — but, adjust the age for Social Security, CPI changes and means testing and look beyond the ten-year window. I cannot in good conscience raise the debt ceiling without addressing the long term debt problems of this country and I will not.

As Millhiser rightfully pointed out, this is nothing but "extortion, plain and simple." Graham's behavior is shameless and reckless and those are probably some of the kinder things you could say about it. What he omitted from his post is the fact that Sen. Dianne Feinstein was right there with him, pretending he's being reasonable with his demands on Social Security because it's not going to harm current seniors. I guess she thinks that people who aren't retirement age don't care about future benefit cuts or that current seniors don't care about their children. I've got news for her. She's wrong. It's also politically tone deaf for any Democrat to be going along with cuts to Social Security if they don't think they'll pay a price for it later.