Forum Post: Obama Running On Republican Policy Aimed to Dismantle Social Security

Bernie Sanders warned about the Payroll Tax Holiday as a tactic to dismantle social security by defunding it last December http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/bernie-sanders-social-security-tax-deal_n_796376.html and now, less then a year later, Sanders and liberal dems are speaking out again about Obama's proposal to extend the defunding policy...

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/181519-liberal-dems-fear-obama-payroll-tax-holiday-will-undermine-social-security

From the above linked article:

"The lawmakers fear Obama’s proposed 2012 payroll-tax break — included as part of his newly released jobs package — could become permanent, stealing from Social Security’s lone funding stream and eventually eroding senior benefits.

"Over a period of years — if you do it one year, and then you do it two years, and then you do it three years — then it becomes permanent,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told reporters Wednesday in the Capitol. “And somebody’s going to say that if you don’t do it, then you’re raising taxes.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) sounded a similar warning, noting that the loss of revenue created by the payroll-tax holiday makes Social Security necessarily reliant on general funds. That, in turn, makes the program much more susceptible to cuts, he added, particularly in a political environment in which deficit reduction has become a top priority.

“Suddenly, someone will say, ‘Wait a minute, we can’t afford to subsidize this thing anymore,’ and the Republicans will say, ‘Well, you can’t raise the tax,’” DeFazio said.

(Didn't take three years, Obama is advancing the red herring less then a year out).....

In 2010, Obama claimed the Payroll Tax Holiday as a win for his Presidency even though it was originally proposed by Republican Leaders....

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-turn/2010/12/reaction_to_the_payroll_tax_ho.html

From the above linked article:

"The White House is counting the 2 percent payroll tax cut among its "wins" in the tax deal worked out with congressional Republicans. But it's a win based on a Republican idea and one that many congressional Republicans support. You may recall that a payroll tax break or "holiday" was a Republican proposal back in 2009. Conservatives liked the idea then in lieu of a tax credit. The Weekly Standard's Matt Continetti explained the reasoning:

The payroll tax hits 60 percent of Americans, including anybody who runs a business. Cutting it would be fast, easy, and effective. Where a tax credit is complicated and invites rent-seeking, a tax cut is transparent. Last December, AEI's John H. Makin calculated that if the payroll tax were suspended for 12 to 18 months, personal discretionary income would rise by 3.5 percent. Workers would have fatter paychecks to spend. The increase in consumption would spur demand. Meanwhile, since the payroll tax also hits employers, a reduction would lower the cost of hiring additional workers. Another way to go would be not to suspend the tax, but to reduce it--permanently.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Orin Hatch (R-Utah), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others have proposed some form of tax payroll holiday or reduction. According to a GOP House leadership advisor, more than half the Republican House caucus has gone on record at some point supporting a reduction in, or suspension of, the payroll tax. In 2009, the White House rebuffed the idea, preferring its grab bag of stimulus spending programs. But things change. Elections have consequences. And just as the president snared the Republicans' plan for a freeze on public employee salaries, the White House now counts the payroll tax cut among its "gets."

We live in a very surreal time.

And, now less than a year later Obama is running on extending the legislation and playing an ugly political game against the American people in this process.....

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-challenges-gop-keep-anti-tax-pledges-022311202.html

"Today, Obama was out on the campaign trail daring the GOP to challenge him on extending this legislation.

"Don't be a Grinch. Don't vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays," he said during his speech at a Manchester high school.

Democrats had hoped to tuck the payroll tax extension, as well as a renewal of jobless benefits, into an agreement from the congressional deficit-reduction supercommittee. But with that option off the table following the committee's collapse Monday, the White House plans to make a full-court press for a separate measure to extend the tax cuts before they expire at the end of the year — and set up Republicans as scapegoats if that doesn't happen."