House Ways and Means Committee member John B. Larson (D-Conn.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Social Security, proposed a bill that would overturn the White House's executive action implementing payroll tax deferral, reported Accounting Today. Joining him were  the committee's chairman, Richard Neal (D-Mass.), along with 19 colleagues. The bill, titled the "Save our Social Security Now Act," was paired with a resolution expressing overall disapproval of the deferral. The president has said that he expects Congress to forgive the deferred payroll taxes, but what Congress does is dependent on the outcome of the November elections. While Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that the deferred funds could be made up from general Treasury funds, Larson said that the president's own words indicate his intention to ultimately defund Social Security itself. In a statement, Larson said, “President Trump has repeatedly said publicly that he will terminate payroll contributions altogether if he wins a second term. ... His emphatic pledge would defund Social Security and deplete the disability trust fund in 2021, and the retirement and survivor fund in 2023."

The administration enacted the deferral after the collapse of talks among congressional leaders last month. While participating in such a deferral would, in the short-term, slightly increase employees' take-home pay, it would come with a much larger tax bill the following year, as the funds would need to be paid back, according to recent IRS guidance. This very issue is why a coalition of business groups, led by the Chamber of Commerce, called the deferral unworkable.

MarketWatch said that even though businesses can now enact the payroll tax deferral, few are choosing to do so because of the same problems brought up by the business coalition. Business owners are especially wary of being on the hook for the employee portion of the deferred taxes if the employee does not or cannot pay them. Also turning off business owners is the complexity of the process, with the guidance not having clear answers to many questions they have, as well as the trouble it would take to change their withholdings for everyone only to have to change them back a few months later.