Yes, the payroll tax cut included in the Obama-Republican tax compromise does give me pause…

…if for no other reason than: huh? If Social Security is in trouble already, then how does reducing payroll taxes help? Even if we cut unemployment to 4%, would that cut into the demographic problems endemic to Social Security?

Not that I’m saying no to the tax cut, mind you.

Anyway, Bill Jacobson sees more reason to be concerned:

FICA increasingly is being treated as just another tax, and social security benefits as just another government entitlement, to be toyed with as political necessity requires.

Thing is, it always was “just another tax.” It always was “just another government entitlement, to be toyed with.” Bill explains:

We have maintained the myth for several decades that FICA payments actually exist in a social security trust fund.

Exactly. It was a myth. So maybe if this “tax cut” clues more of us in to it being a myth, then there’ll finally be enough support for changing it.