House Republicans are again turning to falsehoods over the payroll tax cut extension, with Majority Leader Eric Cantor today repeating the debunked line that the payroll tax cut will raid the Social Security Trust Fund. In August, Mr. Cantor seemed opposed to continuing the payroll tax cut for a different reason. “All tax relief is not created equal," he said then through a spokesman. Regardless of why he doesn’t like it, the facts are clear: maintaining the tax cut through the remainder of 2012 won’t impact the Social Security Trust Fund.
FACT: The law authorizing the payroll tax holiday requires the Secretary of the Treasury to deposit funds in the Social Security Trust Fund at the same time, in the same amount, and in the same way as he would have if the payroll tax holiday did not exist. The Social Security Trust Fund currently has a balance of about $2.7 trillion.
WORTH NOTING: Mr. Cantor has said Rep. Paul Ryan’s Social Security privatization plan (H.R. 4529 in the 111th Congress) is “something we need to embrace." The Ryan plan would divert $1.2 trillion from the Social Security Trust Fund. (Ryan’s plan would restore the diverted money over a 26-year period using savings generated by deep benefit cuts.)
