President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise not to cut Social Security, is reportedly considering a plan to eliminate much of the payroll tax that funds the critical safety net program.
According to the Associated Press on Monday, the proposal is being floated as the Trump administration goes “back to the drawing board in a search for Republican consensus behind legislation to overhaul the U.S. tax system.”
The AP reported that one option “circulating this past week would change the House Republican plan to eliminate much of the payroll tax and cut corporate tax rates. This would require a new dedicated funding source for Social Security.”
And that, Zaid Jilani wrote at The Intercept, “would require counting on Trump’s economic team to shepherd a solution through Congress—and for Congress to treat Social Security unlike other ‘discretionary’ general-fund programs whose budgets rise and fall with political currents.”
The AP continued:
“Furthermore,” Jilani noted, “the rumored mechanism for making up the lost funding…would hit workers the hardest.”
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