Roosevelt

Some on the left agree that the payroll tax cut is likely to be extended, but see nothing wrong with decoupling Social Security from payroll taxes, and making it at least partly dependent on revenue from the general fund.

This argument has merit, but are the potential benefits of making Social Security a standard budget item worth risking the whole program? Social Security is an independent program that has survived largely unchanged for 75 years, but making it depend on general fund revenue puts it at the whims of Washington politicians.

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