Trump's Fake Payroll Tax Cut Is A Big Mess
In August, President Donald Trump took unilateral action to help the economy weather the coronavirus pandemic by putting more money in people’s pockets: The government would take less money out of every paycheck by deferring payroll taxes, essentially giving everyone a raise.
Trump has loved the idea of juicing the economy with a payroll tax cut, just like his predecessor Barack Obama did from 2011 through 2012. Congress wouldn’t go along with Trump’s proposal, however, so the president did it himself.
But there was a catch with Trump’s plan ― the money would have to be paid back next year, meaning it’s not a tax cut so much as a deferral.
Most private employers appear to have opted out of the scheme, citing its administrative difficulty, and so did the U.S. Postal Service. But Trump decided to force it on his own workers — more than amillion employees of the federal government.
Now, those civil servants must deal with the headaches of a loan they never asked for.
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trumps-fake-payroll-tax-cut-is-a-big-mess-153240169.html
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that "Executive Orders" for stuff like this are generally only applicable to federal employees. I.e., they are "directives" for how the federal agencies are supposed to carry out existing law.
Obama's temporary reduction in the payroll tax was done by Congress, NOT by any Executive order. I suppose the "extension" to the rest of the country was along the line of private companies being permitted to NOT submit some "x" amount of payroll tax from their employees that equaled the "reduction", and pass that "savings" onto those employees. But absent any Congressional action, that differential of payments would need to be rectified and paid back to the government by someone - whether by those companies directly or by those companies docking employee pay to recoup that money. Thus it was nothing more than what everyone predicted - a financial photo-op moment that was meaningless. 
