text: Just back from a trip to Iraq, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said on Sunday the government in Baghdad is “still quite delusional” about the urgency of the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. 
   
   “They're still talking about long-term training before they're ready to fight,” the California Republican said an ABC’s “This Week.” 
   
   Issa said he was ready to vote to authorize the U.S. military campaign against ISIL — something President Barack Obama has requested. “The fact is we're already there,” Issa said. “We've had to be there.” 
   
   Issa also said Iraqis — not Americans — should be the ones engaging in ground combat against ISIL. The Kurds were up to the challenge, he said. 
   
   “I have no doubt whatsoever that the Kurds will fight,” he said. “All they need is our air support and our technical know-how, and they will do it.” ||||| Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday "hats off" to President Barack Obama, predicting that he would get a "political victory" on a fiscal cliff deal. 
   
   "Hats off to the president," Graham (R-S.C.) said on Fox News Sunday. "He stood his ground. He's going to get tax rate increases... It will be a political victory for the president." 
   
   But don't think the Republican senator from South Carolina is agreeing with Obama. Graham said that lawmakers have "done little" of going to the way of Greece, which is struggling economically. Obama and Democrats say that they have an electoral mandate to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans because Obama campaigned on it before he was reelected. 
   
   "The president won. The president campaigned on raising rates and he's going to get a rate increase," Graham said. 
   
   Read more about: Barack Obama, Lindsey Graham, Fox News Sunday, Fiscal Cliff ||||| Tthere are better than 50/50 odds of lawmakers reaching a deal on the so-called fiscal cliff, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) predicted on Sunday. 
   
   "There's a real possibility of a deal. I've been a legislator for 37 years, and I've watched how these things work. On these big, big agreements, they almost always happen at the last minute. Neither side likes to give up its position," Schumer said on ABC's "This Week." 
   
   "They eyeball each other until the very end. But then, each side, realizing that the alternative is worse, comes to an agreement," he explained. "So while an agreement is hardly a certainty, I certainly wouldn't rule it out at this last minute." 
   
   "Give me your odds. I said 50/50," said host Jonathan Karl, filling in for George Stephanopoulos. 
   
   "I think a little higher than that," Schumer said. 
   
   Read more about: Chuck Schumer, Fiscal Cliff ||||| While much of the nation is transfixed by the tax hikes and spending cuts that will kick in if the nation goes over the fiscal cliff, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warns that there are other cliff issues being overlooked: the farm bill. 
   
   Vilsack said that unless Congress can pass a farm bill, the agricultural sector of the economy will be devastated, and that will have ripple effects felt by almost every American. 
   
   "Consumers, when they go in the grocery store, are going to be a bit shocked when instead of seeing $3.60 a gallon for milk, they see $7 a gallon for milk," he said during an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "And that’s going to ripple throughout all of the commodities if this thing goes on for an extended period of time." 
   
   The farm bill is set to expire on Jan. 1, and Congress has yet to agree on an extension or replacement. Vilsack said the impacts will also affect renewable energy, such as biofuels, agricultural exports, conservation programs and farmers' markets. And he said efforts to slash funding for the food stamp program are misguided. 
   
   Vilsack said 92 percent of food stamp recipients are seniors, the disabled or children of working families. 
   
   “It’s an important program. It’s misunderstood,” he said. "When you understand who you're helping here, then it becomes a little bit more difficult to advocate for significant and massive cuts as some have suggested.” 
   
   Read more about: Tom Vilsack, Farm Bill, Milk ||||| Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) says he spoke Sunday morning with senators working on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff and they have yet to reach an agreement. 
   
   “There is no deal yet. I continue to hope for a bipartisan agreement,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 
   
   "We’re trying to line up a Rubik’s cube right now, and we're not there yet. We’re meeting later today. This is going to continue, I think, on until tomorrow." 
   
   Barrasso jumped on President Barack Obama for “outsourcing” the fix to Congress. 
   
   “What we’re seeing here is a monumental failure of presidential leadership," Barrasso said. "The president's the only person with a pen who can sign this. And it’s the president’s responsibility to work on something that the House will pass, the Senate will pass and that he will sign. But he is outsourcing this. 
   
   “He continues to campaign and lecture when he ought to be focusing on the number one problem that hurts us as a country, which is our debt.” 
   
   Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) jumped in to defend the president, saying Democrats are united on a plan to extend middle class taxes and Republicans are standing in the way. 
   
   Read more about: Barack Obama, John Barrasso, Fiscal Cliff, Donald Edwards ||||| Sen. Dianne Feinstein said on Sunday that America needs to "bite the bullet" on gun control reform in the wake of the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. 
   
   "America has to bite the bullet of what these incidents mean to our people, to our nation and our nation's standing in the world," Feinstein said on "Fox News Sunday." "When you have someone walking in and slaying in the most brutal way 6-year-olds, something is really wrong." 
   
   Feinstein is set to introduce gun-control legislation that would enact stricter background checks and gun registration laws in wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, in which authorities say Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six others at the elementary school. 
   
   "This is one effort and other things we should do to try to put weapons under some kind of appropriate authority," she said. 
   
   Read more about: Dianne Feinstein, Gun Control, Connecticut School Shooting
target: – President Obama wasn't the only show on the Sunday dial today: On the eve of the fiscal cliff, Lindsey Graham was upbeat about the chances of a deal, telling Fox News they were "exceedingly good." "Hats off to the president," said Graham, according to Politico. "He stood his ground. He's going to get tax rate increases. It will be a political victory for the president." John Barrasso wasn't nearly so positive, saying, "We’re trying to line up a Rubik’s cube right now, and we're not there yet." He blamed Obama for "outsourcing" negotiations to Congress, calling it "a monumental failure of presidential leadership." Elsewhere on your Sunday dial, as per Politico: Chuck Schumer on the cliff: "I've been a legislator for 37 years, and I've watched how these things work. On these big, big agreements, they almost always happen at the last minute. Neither side likes to give up its position. But then, each side, realizing that the alternative is worse, comes to an agreement. So while an agreement is hardly a certainty, I certainly wouldn't rule it out at this last minute." Dianne Feinstein on gun control: "America has to bite the bullet of what these incidents mean to our people, to our nation and our nation's standing in the world. When you have someone walking in and slaying in the most brutal way, 6-year-olds, something is really wrong." Tom Vilsack on that other (farm bill) 'cliff:' "Consumers are going to be shocked when instead of seeing $3.60 a gallon for milk, they see $7 a gallon for milk. And that’s going to ripple throughout all of the commodities if this thing goes on for an extended period of time."