FDR explicitly created the payroll tax as a dedicated funding mechanism for Social Security to make the program harder to roll back. The point was to encourage the illusion that people were getting back what they paid in, and that this was not just another government spending program. Undermining the artificial distinction between payroll and income taxes, and the notion that the former pays for entitlements and the latter for the rest of the government, is a good thing.
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About the Author
Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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