Social Security is in no danger of being weakened by a payroll tax holiday.

[ProSense]

that is fully paid for (edited title and to add this for clarification).

The MSM is pushing this line, but as Dean Baker points out it's "untrue"

CPBB Presient Robert Greenstein on the payroll tax holiday and other aspects of the President's proposal.

The MSM wants to keep the idea alive that Social Security is being weakened. It's pure fear mongering.

There is a case to be made, as Greenstein did, for the payroll tax holiday.

Robert Kuttner proposed this in September 2010:

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Six. Propose a six month tax holiday for payroll taxes. Ask for the Republicans' support. This would provide direct tax relief to working people and lower the cost of creating jobs. It would provide more of a tonic to the economy and more practical help to American families than any of the Republicans' proposed tax cuts. Make up the loss to the Social Security trust funds with a temporary surtax on people making over $10 million a year.

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Nouriel Roubini also suggested this last September:

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A much better option is for the administration to reduce the payroll tax for two years. The reduced labor costs would lead employers to hire more; for employees, the increased take-home pay would boost much-needed economic consumption and advance the still-crucial process of deleveraging households (paying down credit card debt and other legacies of the easy-credit years).

Most policy approaches, including the Obama proposals, have tended to subsidize the demand for capital rather than the demand for labor. That has the problem backward. In the second quarter, capital spending reached an annual growth rate of 25 percent. The argument that increased demand for capital leads to greater demand for labor (i.e., if you buy more machines you need workers to run them) has not held up. Firms are investing in capital goods, equipment and offshore offices that allow them to produce the same amount of goods with less -- and lower labor costs. To avoid a chronic increase in the unemployment rate, we need to subsidize the demand for labor -- achieving job creation -- rather than making it cheaper to buy capital, as investment and other tax credits would do.

President Obama could fully fund the reduction in payroll tax by allowing the Bush tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 a year to expire. Meanwhile, the Bush-era cuts affecting middle- and low-income earners -- the vast majority of Americans -- would remain in place for the time being.

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Kuttner suggested replenishing the trust fund with a temporary surtax on the rich. Roubini suggested the tax holiday be paid for by letting the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 expire.

President Obama proposed ending oil subsidies, closing corporate loopholes and the Bush tax cuts for the rich (millionaires), which will have a long-term impact on revenues as opposed to a temporary surtax.