They don’t think Trump’s executive actions come close to covering what’s needed — and they have the leverage to push for more.

Strictly speaking, the president cannot unilaterally reduce or cancel payroll taxes. The last payroll tax holiday in 2011-12 was accomplished by Congress passing legislation. The President, however, can change payroll tax deadlines in some situations. Section 7508A of the Internal Revenue Code allows the Secretary of the Treasury to postpone tax deadlines for up to one year for people affected by a federally declared disaster. Treasury has already invoked the provision when it pushed the federal income tax deadline from April 15 to July 15 this year. An op-ed by Steve Moore and Phil Kerpen published on August 2 suggested using this provision to suspend payroll tax collection completely.

The economy is in dire shape. Millions of Americans are about to lose federal aid. The Senate is going on vacation.