> And one more thing. Right now, 50% of SS tax is paid by employers.
> If they include it in the general budget, it will get the employers
> off the hook, no?
No, those taxes are really just passed on to employees as reductions in wages. So if SS were moved to the general budget, we could expect wages to increase as a result (provided there is enough bargaining power to recapture the withheld wages). There is no downside and much upside to eliminating the payroll tax. It is a tax specifically on labor, and a regressive one at that, i.e., high earners pay less of it than low earners as a percentage of their earned income. No government program has to pay for itself, and there is no reason why we should impose this voluntary constraint.