Democrats screwy payroll tax cut undermines Social Security

Washington Post:

By extending the payroll tax cut, Congress and the administration have quietly made a critical change in how Social Security is funded — one that some in Washington worry could undermine the program’s foundation if lawmakers keep renewing the tax break.

For the first time in the program’s history, tens of billions of dollars from the government’s general pool of revenue are being funneled to the Social Security trust fund to make up for the revenue lost to the tax cut. Roughly $110 billion will be automatically shifted from the Treasury to the trust fund to cover this year’s cut, according to the Social Security Board of Trustees. An additional $19 billion, it is estimated, will be necessary to pay for the two-month extension.

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You have to ask yourself why the Post sat on this story during the debate on the extension of the payroll tax cuts before Christmas.   The cuts make no sense from any policy consideration.  they do not stimulate the economy because they are both too small and limited as to time.  They also undermine the premise behind Social Security.  They are just a bad idea, used in a cynical ploy by Democrats that the media was eager to embrace when they could use it to hammer Republicans.