Lindsey Graham Admits Spending Bill Is 'Train Wreck' but Will Vote for It

South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham said Wednesday he planned to vote for a nearly $1.7 trillion spending package amid a spat among conservative leaders who believe the bill is a disastrous, 4,155-page slurry of pork barrel spending and liberal-friendly policies.

Dubbed "the ugliest omnibus bill ever" by the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board Wednesday, the massive spending bill includes tens of billions of dollars in new aid to Ukraine along with bipartisan policy changes on Medicaid, new disaster relief funding, and investments in programs addressing child care, nutrition assistance and affordable housing.

However, the bill also includes numerous concessions to the Democratic side to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars that have already prompted Representative Kevin McCarthy to order his colleagues in the Senate to oppose the bill on principle—both for the size of the spending package, as well as for where funding is going—or risk losing consideration of any of their proposed bills next Congress.

"We're two weeks away, 14 days away from having a stronger hand in negotiations," McCarthy told Fox News' Laura Ingraham Wednesday night.

"Why don't we think, instead of adding more money, we could eliminate waste and wokeism?" he added. "We would have a stronger hand. The Democrats planned this on purpose. They didn't want to show the American public where they wanted to spend the money and keep spending more of it."

If it doesn't pass before Friday, the government shuts down—at least until Republicans take over in January. That said, the prospect is highly unlikely.

For the next several days at least, Democrats will still control both chambers, leaving little incentive for Republicans to play along.

Graham—like several of his other colleagues—appears to be calling McCarthy's bluff.

Ahead of the Wednesday vote, Graham told Axios reporter Alayna Treene that while he planned to vote for the omnibus bill, it would be "the last time" he does.

"I told all our guys that this is the last time we're gonna vote for a train wreck," he told Treene. "I've told all my Republican leadership guys, moving forward, we're gonna go back to regular order."

Newsweek has contacted Graham's office for comment.

If anything, Graham's—and others'—vote is a show of confidence for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican currently floating above simmering anger from the GOP base after his party's candidates faltered in this year's midterm elections.

As McCarthy has sought to ward off a revolt of his own in the House of Representatives, McConnell's war has been a subtle one, fought largely on social media and in the conservative press. First for his lack of support of election-deniers in the 2022 midterms, then for his willingness to find bipartisan compromise with his Democratic colleagues.

"So long as Mitch McConnell is the top elected Republican in D.C., eagerly trashing Republican voters, vociferously advocating for Democrat policy goals, pushing $1.7 trillion Democrat spending packages, and weakly fighting for whatever Republican goals he can be bothered to pursue, Republicans have a major problem," conservative writer Mollie Hemingway wrote in a column eviscerating McConnell in The Federalist ahead of the vote.

"This is beyond obvious," she added. "Everyone outside D.C. knows this even if few inside D.C. are willing to acknowledge it. Until they do, the Republican Party will continue to suffer."

But the senators' vote is pragmatic. They don't have the votes they need to block the bill. And in a divided Congress next year, they'll need Democratic goodwill if they wish to accomplish anything ahead of the 2024 midterms.

McCarthy's threats, several have said, are nothing more than an effort to appease his conference in an attempt to hold onto power.

While Senate Republicans face numerous concessions in the bill, they also secured a number of wins, including federal bans on installing TikTok on government devices, limits on funding for the Internal Revenue Service, and retaining Hyde Amendment language blocking federal funding for abortions in most cases, among other wins.

"Statements like that and statements coming from House Republicans," North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer told CNN's Manu Raju this week, "is the very reason that some Senate Republicans feel they probably should spare them from the burden of having to govern."