The Hill News

Prior to the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto â€" the architect of the assault on Pearl â€" held serious reservations about his ability to continue pressure against the United States, even if Japan scored an early tactical victory. In fact, Yamamoto expressed his anxiety by declaring, “I can run wild for six months ... after that, I have no expectation of success.”  The rest, of course, is history.   

Critical to remember though, is the real lesson of Yamamoto’s prophetic stance: There is always danger in valuing short-term tactical victories over long-term strategic imperatives. Unfortunately, this warning recently went unheeded in Washington DC, whereupon Congress and the administration agreed to extend the Social Security payroll tax cut for two months. Despite the ways in which the tax cut threatens Social Security and despite larger concerns about fiscal responsibility, elected officials passed the extension anyway! , basically allowing a short-term gain to overrule the long-term good.  

While many argue that extending the Social Security payroll tax cut is essential to promoting economic vigor, doing so is not without significant cost. In fact, for the first time ever in the history of Social Security, roughly $110 billion from the U.S. Treasury will be transferred to the Social Security trust fund to finance the first payroll tax cut from 2011. An additional $19 billion is now required to cover the two-month extension just passed. What is more, 20 members of a bipartisan conference committee have been chosen to determine how to pay for a potential year-long extension in February when the current two-month vehicle expires.

Read more...