Jim Fair
Sen. Lindsey Graham toured Honeywell International Monday. The facility makes parts and repairs engines for the Chinook helicopter (background) and the Army’s Abrams tank.
“I should win the part,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said after touring Honeywell International Inc. in Greer Monday.
“I have the best background and resume and experience to be commander in chief from day one,” Graham said. “What I have said about Iraq and Syria has been more right than wrong.
“I will compare what I have been doing for the last (10) years versus anybody. I have been to Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and other places in the Mideast to learn about what is going on to try figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ve got to meet almost every leader in the region, I’ve know them and most importantly they know me.”
Graham is on the Armed Services in the Senate is considered one of the strongest proponents of a strong national defense. “I understand how the military works having be in it (Air Force),” Graham said.
It was the first time Graham toured the Honeywell facility off of Buncombe Road, which manufactures engine components for military and civilian aircraft. The company makes parts and repairs engines for the Chinook helicopter and the Army’s Abrams tank.
Graham told Honeywell representatives he supported the Export-Import bank of the U.S., which finances foreign sales of U.S. company products. Honeywell’s business is supported by 25 percent sales through the Export-Import bank, according to a company executive.
Graham said he was not posturing running for president while keeping his eyes on a cabinet position by throwing his support to a front-running candidate. “The reason I am working very hard and putting myself out front is because I want to be president,” Graham said.
“I am not running for a cabinet position. I don’t want a cabinet position,” Graham said. I am ruling out anything other than winning. And If I don’ win, I will be the Sen. from South Carolina.”
Graham told a conference room full of Honeywell employees there are economic factors that need full attention.
“If you don’t build a mass retirement of baby boomers, our economy over time collapses,” Graham said. “We have to adjust Medicare and social security before they take the whole economy down with it.
“By 2042, all the revenue we collect in taxes pay for Medicare and social security. Unless you raise taxes or cut benefits we’re in a world of hurt.”
Job creation, said Graham, is stalled and just limping along. “I would replace Obama care with something more appropriate for consumers with more choices, not less,” Graham said.
“It’s hard to grow your business when you don’t know what your health care bill is going to be, don’t know what your power bill is going to be and you don’t know your tax liability. I would replace uncertainty with certainty.”
Among Graham’s suggestions Graham made for creating job in the U.S. is creating a flatter tax, take the EPA regulation on carbon and replace it with statutory carbon standards that are more pro business and he would make it easier to borrow money.
Most importantly, the highway trust fund is falling apart and thus the roads are too, according to Graham. “As president I would look to a solution for a national problem – the deterioration of our infrastructure. If we don’t up our game on infrastructure we are going to lose our economic advantage in the world.”
Graham said the early primaries, South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire, are the three most important to his campaign. “I’m worried about the South Carolina primary,” Graham said. “People in South Carolina need to fight for this spot we have. We’re the first-in-the-South primary. We really do shape presidential races and, for the most part, we get it right.”