Kelly Ayotte: “I come to the floor to talk about an amendment I have pending to the bill pending on the floor to fix the unfair cuts to…”

“I come to the floor to talk about an amendment I have pending to the bill pending on the floor to fix the unfair cuts to our military retirees. Let me remind everyone of how we got to this point. It was right before the holidays and there was a budget agreement that was reached between the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and the chairman of the House Budget Committee. Let me remind everyone in this Chamber that I serve on the Senate Budget Committee. No one on the Senate Budget Committee--at least myself, I wasn't included, I guess I missed it--brought to our attention the budget agreement before it was brought as a fait accompli to the floor, and that is one of the problems that brought us to where we are today. Only in Washington could you serve on the actual Budget Committee, they come up with a budget agreement and actually never show it to you--even though you are on the Budget Committee. Had they shown it to me in advance, I can tell you what I would have told them, that this idea to single out our military retirees is totally unfair. It is the wrong priority for America to single out those who have taken the bullets for us when, if we look at the changes that were made in the budget agreement to the contributions for Federal employees, they were prospective. Only new hires had to pay additional contributions.…”