Judd Gregg: “Yes, in last year's budget, the Democrats failed to protect Social Security for seniors. Democrats, in their fiscal year…”

“Yes, in last year's budget, the Democrats failed to protect Social Security for seniors. Democrats, in their fiscal year 2008 budget, threw out both the bipartisan Social Security ``circuit breaker'' and the bipartisan ``save Social Security first'' budget point of order contained in the Senate-passed version, thus removing crucial tools to eliminate the practice of spending the Social Security surplus on other programs. Under the Democrats' fiscal year 2008 budget, every dollar of the Social Security surplus, or $1 trillion, was spent. They failed to protect workers against tax increases. Democrats, in their fiscal year 2008 budget conference report, threw out a bipartisan budget point of order against raising income tax rates that had been included in the Senate-passed version. They failed to protect the integrity of the reconciliation process. Democrats threw out a bipartisan point of order in the Senate-passed version that would have limited any new spending in response to reconciliation instructions to 20 percent. By converting reconciliation to a spending exercise, Democrats allowed new spending that was 2,900 percent larger than the savings instruction in their budget. They failed to protect State and local governments from expensive mandates. Democrats threw out a Senate rule requiring a supermajority to waive the unfunded mandates budget point of order, thus making it much easier to burden State and local governments with costs from Federal Government requirements.”