Lindsey Graham’s tax policy, tariff advocacy, and defence spending record defined much of the Republican economic agenda over two decades, a legacy brought into sharp relief by his death on Saturday at the age of 71.
Graham’s office said in a statement on Sunday that the four-term South Carolina senator died after a ‘brief and sudden’ illness. He had just returned from Kyiv, where he had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Corporate Tax Cuts: From 35% to 21% and Beyond
Graham was a central figure in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which reduced the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. His interest in cutting corporate taxes predated that legislation by more than a decade: during a Republican primary debate in 2015, he argued that a lower rate was the most effective way to prevent businesses from relocating overseas and to create jobs.
‘The best way to grow the middle class is to make it a good place to create a job,’ he said at the time.
During Trump’s second term, Graham chaired the Senate Budget Committee and helped clear the path for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which made many of those 2017 corporate tax provisions permanent and extended other business-friendly measures. The House approved the Senate’s legislative text on 3 July 2025 without changes, according to Mayer Brown.
The fiscal implications are considerable. The Tax Foundation estimates the act’s major provisions would reduce federal tax revenue by nearly $5.2 trillion between 2025 and 2034 on a conventional basis, or $4.3 trillion on a dynamic basis after accounting for a projected 0.7% increase in long-run GDP. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget puts the cost differently, estimating the bill would add $2.4 trillion to primary deficits over the coming decade and $3.0 trillion to the debt including interest; if temporary provisions are extended without offsets, that figure rises to $5.0 trillion.
Nine days before his death, Graham published a statement marking the first anniversary of the bill’s signing. ‘One year ago, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law, delivering the largest tax cut for working and middle-class families in American history,’ he wrote. ‘As the Senate Budget Chairman, I was proud to lead this effort alongside my Senate and House Republican colleagues. We also ended taxes on tips and overtime and delivered no taxes on Social Security benefits for over 35 million seniors.’
Tariffs: Lindsey Graham Tax Policy Meets Trade Leverage
Graham’s support for tariffs sat alongside, rather than in conflict with, his broadly free-trade instincts. As early as 2005, in his first Senate term, he called for aggressive tariffs on China over currency manipulation and intellectual property theft. Those arguments prefigured the tariff strategy that became a cornerstone of the Trump administration.
Graham supported using tariffs as leverage: to press Mexico and Canada on border security and to reduce fentanyl flows. When the Supreme Court ruled on 20 February 2026, by a 6-3 majority in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not authorise the sweeping tariffs the president had imposed, Graham remained unapologetic, as analysed by Sidley Austin.
‘One of the chief reasons that our border is so secure is President Trump threatened to put tariffs on countries that were allowing illegal immigrants to pour in through our southern border and held them accountable for the problem,’ Graham wrote in response to the ruling.
The administration subsequently announced a 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 and signalled further action under Section 301, according to the American Society of International Law. The Supreme Court’s ruling left Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs, including existing levies on steel and aluminium, untouched.
Defence Spending and South Carolina’s Military Economy
Graham was among the Senate’s most consistent advocates for higher defence budgets. After the Trump administration outlined a 2027 military request of $1.5 trillion, a figure representing a near 45% increase on the prior year and described as the largest single-year military funding request in modern US history, Graham called it ‘the most robust increase in defense spending in many years.’
His interventionist outlook, which led him to back the Iraq war, oppose the Afghan withdrawal, and call for sweeping sanctions on Russia, translated directly into appropriations work at home. In 2024, South Carolina received nearly $7 billion in military spending through payroll, contracts, and construction, according to the Defense Department. A 2022 state-commissioned study put the military’s annual economic impact on the state at some $35 billion, supporting over 250,000 jobs.
MilitarySpend.org estimates the state hosts 7 military installations and approximately 32,000 active-duty personnel, with around $4 billion in prime defence contract awards recorded for FY2025.
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Graham directed funds towards bases including Fort Jackson and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. ‘This will pay dividends for our state for years to come,’ he said in 2023.
With Graham’s death, the Senate Budget Committee chairmanship passes to a successor yet to be named, and the Republican coalition must now defend a legislative record built on tax cuts estimated to cost trillions against a fiscal backdrop that is already the subject of bipartisan scrutiny.