Obama and Democrats are baldly reversing decades of touting SocSec as a pension plan that individuals contribute 15% of their income (what your employer puts in is money that would have gone into your wages/salary) over a lifetime of working, into just another welfare program they can both tinker with and make people feel guilty about.

◼ LATimes columnist sees problems with Social Security “tax cut” - but still gets it wrong - Darleen Click/Protein Wisdom

◼ Payroll tax cut undermines Social Security's security - Michael Hiltzik/LA Times

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?

...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%.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) put it well when he excoriated President Obama and his fellow congressional Democrats for approving a measure that places Social Security's financial stability on the table. "I never thought I would live to see the day when a Democratic president ... would agree to put Social Security in this kind of jeopardy," he said. "Never did I ever imagine a Democratic president beginning the unraveling of Social Security." --- Email: mhiltzik@latimes.com