Lindsey Graham: GOP 'Playing With Fire' by Cutting Defense

Sen. Lindsey Graham says his Republican colleagues are "playing with fire" by cutting the defense and security budgets when the United States should be going on offense against terrorism.

Appearing on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer," Graham said that CENTCOM hackers on Monday succeeded more in a propaganda coup than anything else, but that it should be a wake-up call that America is failing in cybersecurity defense.

Graham said he regularly beats up on President Barack Obama for letting terrorism rise and letting al-Qaida regain its strength, but he said Congress shares the blame for making America weaker against cyber-threats.

Congress is cutting the budget of the NSA, the CIA, the FBI and the Department of Defense, and can't agree on a cybersecurity bill, he said.

Republicans are threatening to cut the Homeland Security budget over Obama's executive orders in November, allowing for more illegal immigrants to obtain legal status. Graham said he doesn't mind fighting the part of the budget that implements the executive order.

"But to my Republican colleagues, we're playing with fire here," the South Carolina Republican said. "We need a robust homeland security budget now."

The DOD budget between 2016 and 2020 will cut the Navy to its smallest level since 1915 and the Army to its smallest since 1940, he noted.

"We're really gutting the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, all of the intelligence eyes and ears are beginning to be deaf and blind because of sequestration," Graham said. "My No. 1 mission in 2015 is to replace these cuts to our defense budget and intelligence community before it's too late."

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