Reply #9: Where did this idea come from, anyway?

[gratuitous]

It's pretty obvious what's going to happen if this so-called payroll tax holiday is adopted, and this article hits most of it in terms of the predictable yammering about a tax increase when the holiday is set to be over with. The other prong of why this is such a bad idea, is that it will make social security appear to be less solvent. If you think the tiresome concern about social security "going broke" in 28 years is annoying, just wait until the actuarial tables make it look like that's going to happen in 23, or 20 years. The screams of ersatz concern will drive you barking mad.

But how did this idea get promulgated in the first place? Or was this one of those infamous "self-writing" clauses that nobody wrote, nobody can remember how it got proposed, and son of a gun if there's nothing that can be done to remove it.