Orrin Hatch: “Simply put, Senator Reid's amendment would exempt Social Security from section 1 of the balanced budget amendment, which…”

“Simply put, Senator Reid's amendment would exempt Social Security from section 1 of the balanced budget amendment, which requires that total outlays for any fiscal year not exceed total receipts for that fiscal year unless a three-fifths vote of both Houses concurs. Senator Reid, and many of those who favor exemption of Social Security, make the rhetorical points that we should not balance the budget on the backs of the elderly; that the Social Security trust funds will be raided. Poppycock. The fact is, those funds are going to be invested in the very same bonds, no matter whether it is off budget or on. The question is, what is the best budgetary approach to take? What is in the best interests of our senior citizens? What is in the best interests of our senior citizens is to understand that everybody in Congress will protect Social Security, and it is better off having it in the unified budget where it has always been protected. Show me a time when it wasn't. It has always been protected, at least in all the time I have been here.”