Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) charges Obama with "beginning the unraveling of Social Security" [View all]

[Better Believe It]

Sen. Harkin rips Obama for 'unraveling Social Security' with tax cut
By Josiah Ryan
February 16, 2012

The liberal senator was unusually tough in criticizing Obama, who Harkin said would deprive the Social Security fund of roughly $100 billion by extending the two-percentage-point payroll tax cut through the end of 2012. That tax funds the Social Security trust fund.

“I never thought I would have to see the day when a Democratic president of the United States and a Democratic vice president would agree to put Social Security in this kind of jeopardy," exclaimed a visibly agitated Harkin from the Senate floor. "Never did I ever imagine a Democratic president would be the beginning of the unraveling of Social Security.”

He also noted that under the deal worked out by House Republicans and Senate Democrats, the tax cut will not be offset with other spending cuts or tax increases and will add to the deficit.

"I warn my colleagues to consider the long terms ramifications of these actions," said Harkin. "This continues to open the door to further extending the [pay roll] tax cut because we don't have to pay for it."

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/211323-harkin-blasts-obama-for-agreeing-to-unfunded-pay-roll-tax-cut-deal


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Tom Harkin rips 'devil's deal' on payroll tax
By SEUNG MIN KIM
February 16, 2012

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) unleashed fury at President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats over the deal to extend the payroll tax holiday, ripping the agreement apart as a “devil’s deal.”

“I never thought I would live to see the day when a Democratic president and a Democratic vice president would agree to put Social Security in this kind of jeopardy,” Harkin said on the Senate floor Thursday evening. “Never did I imagine a Democratic president beginning the unraveling of Social Security.”

Harkin, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, took particular aim at one component: that will slash about $5 billion from the Prevention and Public Health Fund - a program created by the health care law that Harkin has championed.

“I choose my words carefully,” Harkin said. “Make no mistake about it, American people, make no mistake about it. This is the beginning of the end of the sanctity of Social Security.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2012/02/tom-harkin-rips-devils-deal-on-payroll-tax-114792.html


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Payroll tax cut undermines Social Security's security
If Social Security becomes just another line item in the federal budget, what's to save it from being swept up in an across-the-board orgy of spending reductions?
By Michael Hiltzik
February 19, 2012

.... with every extension of the payroll tax holiday, which was first enacted in 2010, the prospect that Congress will ever restore the tax to its statutory 6.2% of covered income recedes a little bit further over the horizon. And that's bad medicine for Social Security.

.... because of the unique features of the program's financing, tampering with its revenue stream is playing with fire. The payroll tax is currently set at 12.4% of wages, split equally between employer and employee, up to a maximum of $110,100. The tax holiday cuts the employee's 6.2% share to 4.2%.

"Who is ever going to say, 'Now the economy's so strong that it's the right time to raise taxes'?" Andrew G. Biggs, a former Social Security official who is now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told me.

Restoring the old payroll tax rate at a single swipe would mean a sudden increase in the levy of nearly 50%, a change that could be painted by political opponents as a cataclysmic tax hike on the working class, never mind that it's a rollback of a temporary break.

Read the full article at:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20120219,0,1032274.column